When armed thugs allegedly hired by landowners threatened violence
on IOM staff and support workers earlier this week, a sensitive
operation to rescue families from a desperate situation came
grinding to a halt.

Some 263 families cling precariously to life in Parc Fleurieux;
their sad tents hug the bank of a football field that's flooded
with stagnant water contaminated by a nearby open sewer. Women wash
their clothes in a muddy creek using water that emerges from the
grime of Port-au-Prince. Naked children wander through the camp
scratching at skin infections, while residents suffering from
malaria and other illnesses sit bleary-eyed in their tents.

The Haitian Government, IOM, international and non-governmental
actors agreed that the health situation of the group was critical
and that urgent action was required to prevent a public health
crisis. After discussion with the local mayor, a location was found
on an informal space with room for extra families and work on
preparing the site with gravel and drains began.

Once force was threatened during the voluntary relocation, the
whole operation was called off pending negotiations with the
landowner's representatives. It was left to Renald, the 29-year-old
elected site representative to break the disappointing news to his
fellow residents. An eloquent man who speaks fluent English and
French and Creole, he says he has been both homeless and unemployed
since the 12 January earthquake.

Renald invited visitors to see his tent, where his wife sat
scrubbing clothes and his young daughter played naked. The lower
part of her torso is covered in scars from third degree burns she
suffered when their home caught fire in the quake. "She needs
plastic surgery badly," he says, a sadness welling in his eyes,
"but we can barely afford to pay for enough food."

Broken promises are nothing new to Haitians living in difficult
circumstances. Almost six months after the country was devastated
by the quake, daily life is a misery for more than 1.5 million
homeless individuals.

The torment seems unending for the residents of Parc Fleurieux,
with many living in tents and homemade shelters so dilapidated that
a stiff summer breeze can make short work of them. The prospect of
violent storms or even hurricanes striking Haiti's unprotected
encampments this summer fills humanitarian workers and national
officials with dread.

Attempts by the government to acquire land by decree have had
mixed success with the result that there is little real movement to
improve the plight of the displaced population. Efforts to return
people to their own communities become thwarted by the lack of
legal title while lawsuits are threatened against those who remove
rubble without permission.

Back at Parc Fleurieux, a young boy named Sampson sits forlornly
by the rubbish-strewn lake that laps against the side of his camp.
His sad demeanour speaks of a stolen childhood and for now at
least, a destiny of abject poverty without the benefit of
rudimentary shelter.

For further information, please contact:

Leonard Doyle

Media and Communication Officer

IOM Haiti

Tel: + 509 3702 5066

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