The closure of camps in post-earthquake affected Haiti is picking
up tempo as more and more families find alternative accommodation
and are helped to return to their communities.

Some of the most visible camps in Port-au-Prince have closed, or
are on the point of being closed, under a strategy developed by the
Government of Haiti and the humanitarian community through its
newly created housing authority: L'Unité de Construction
de Logements et de Bâtiments Publics (UCLBP).

Under this programme, a week from today, the first 150 families,
assisted by IOM will leave the overcrowded tent camp in Champ de
Mars in the heart of Port-au-Prince. The relocation of all 4,600
families from this symbolic public space in the coming months will
be a significant milestone in getting Port-au-Prince back on the
road to recovery.

In close cooperation with the Government of Haiti, humanitarian
organizations have developed a number of approaches to camp
closures, which are centred on protecting the rights of the
displaced. IOM, together with other UN organizations and
international NGOs, is delivering solutions to support families
leaving flimsy tents and shelters, by identifying families in need
of house repair and providing a year's rental support for those
families with no home to rebuild.

"The piecemeal efforts by different organizations have become a
comprehensive strategy to close the camps, while protecting the
basic rights of the displaced," said IOM Haiti Chief of Mission
Luca Dall'Oglio. "But we will not reach a tipping-point in camp
closures unless we have the resources to help these people find
alternative accommodation. The strategy of relocation is working,
now more resources are needed to carry it out," he added.

IOM's 2012 Migration Initiatives global overview of the
organization's funding requirements for the coming year points to a
need for USD 10 million for "facilitating housing solutions for
internally displaced households, including voluntary exit of IDPs
from camps"  in Haiti.

A rights-based relocation strategy has ensured that these camp
closures are conducted according to humanitarian norms and that
evictions threatened by landlords are either stayed or prevented. A
typical family registered as living in a camp targeted for
relocation receives a year's rental subsidy in advance. This gives
families time to get back on their feet and to find work in their
old neighbourhoods, while the reconstruction process gets
underway.

By closing prominent camps and getting the most vulnerable into
new homes, there is an immediate improvement in the lives of some
of Haiti's most vulnerable.

But some 126,000 families still remain in camps in deteriorating
conditions and it will be at least two to five years before the
neighbourhood regeneration approach has time to fully rebuild the
neighbourhoods of return.

That is why the focus has been on providing interim solutions to
help people out of camps. IOM is both using and advocating for many
complementary methods to help families leave camps and find a
better interim or permanent housing solution.

Since the earthquake, the focus has been on temporary shelter
construction, house repair and, in recent months, new home
reconstruction, and relocation and rental subsidies. A wide range
of approaches is being successfully used to help families leave
camps to move back into communities.

This is happening as funding for camp management, health, water,
sanitation and other services in the camps is drying up and
vulnerability has increased.

This has led to higher levels of child and women's protection
issues in camps. Reported incidences of transactional sex have
increased and reports of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV)
have also increased substantially. In parallel with the increased
prevalence of protection cases, there has been a worrying decrease
in funding to track and report, let alone react to protection
needs.

Health and sanitation are also under pressure. Almost all health
services have ceased in camps, but the community-based approach to
healthcare has not yet been sufficiently developed. The rainy
season, which starts in June 2012, will see virtually no camps with
access to free health services, while funding for cholera response
and mitigation has substantially reduced. Funding for emptying
latrines has all but dried up for all camps, increasing risk
factors for cholera transmission.

For more information please contact:

Leonard Doyle

IOM Haiti

Tel: +509 3702 5066

E-mail: "mailto:ldoyle@iom.int">ldoyle@iom.int