The number of people living in displacement camps in and around
Haiti’s capital Port au Prince has declined by 14 per cent to
an estimated 421,000 since February, according to figures collected
by IOM. This is the steepest decline in the camp population since
early last year.

Some 73 per cent of the original population has now left
Haiti’s camps since the height of the crisis in 2010, when an
estimated 1.5 million people were made homeless by a massive
earthquake, which the government says killed up to 300,000
people.

IOM’s April 2012 Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) report
shows that a further 58 camps closed between February and April,
bringing the total number of camps down to 602 from 660 in February
2012 and 1,555 in July 2010.

 

The decline in camp numbers results partly from several well-funded
programmes, administered in part by IOM. These are providing
alternative housing solutions, including rental solutions for
families who were otherwise too poor to leave the camps and find
alternative accommodation, according to IOM Haiti Chief of Mission
Luca Dall’Oglio.

“The dramatic fall in numbers is a direct result of the
humanitarian community rallying around to provide tangible
solutions. For families trapped by economic circumstances in high
profile camps in Port-au-Prince, we have been able to provide a
breathing space in the form of a year’s rental
subsidy,” he says.

Subsidies of USD 500 per family were given under Rental Support
Cash Grant programmes developed in late 2010 and scaled up to reach
more camp residents in the second year of the earthquake response.
This approach was adopted after it became clear that permanent
reconstruction would be a long process in Haiti and there would
continue to be a very large camp population in need of shelter
assistance.

The latest drop in camp numbers can also be attributed to
Government of Haiti-led return and relocation projects widely known
as “16/6”, and similar projects implemented by Camp
Coordination, Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster agencies.

The “16/6” framework refers to an original plan to
help people move from six well-defined camps to 16 communities.
This has now grown to incorporate other relocation projects, not
least the Government of Canada-financed relocation of some 5,000
families from the symbolic Champ de Mars square in the heart of
Port-au-Prince.

The DTM report says that 60 per cent of the 421,000 displaced
are now clustered in 48 large sites hosting over 500 households.
Living conditions in the camps are wretched and deteriorating, due
to the early onset of unusually heavy rains this year.

For further information please contact:

Leonard Doyle

IOM Haiti

Email "mailto:Ldoyle@iom.int">Ldoyle@iom.int

Tel. +509 3702 5066