IDPs

In the absence of a credible and competent central government, violence has spread from Port-au-Prince to other regions including the Artibonite Valley and the Central Plateau.  According to ACLED, 6000 people died in violent dearths in 2025 with 1.4 million people, ten percent of the population, internally displaced.  The gangs are also maintaining a presence along key transit routes including those that run into and out of Port-au-Prince and into the Dominican Republic.  In this way they can expand by trafficking guns, drugs, and "taxing" commerce.  The full article on the worsening security situation by Harriet Barber in the Guardian follows. 

As the UN-Approved Gang Supression Force (GSP) takes shape, many Haitians are unsure whether it will be able to reclaim Port au Prince, which is 90% controlled by gangs, let alone areas outside it.  Many questions remain.  Will the GSF reach the anticipated 5,500 police and military officers hoped for? How will the force interface with and protect civiians? How long will it remain and how will it transition if there is not a competent central government prepated to invest in its own people and their security?  The full article by Milo Milfort for the New Humanitarian follows. 

In recent days, 1,200 Haitians have been displaced by gang violence.  The Kenyan-led security force is under-staffed and under-equipped for pushing back gangs let alone holding cleared neighborhoods.  Even if they could, it is a temporary measure until there is an effective, accountable government in place.  So far the Transitional Presidential Council is remarkable only for the level of infighting.  Residents of contested neighborhoods lack food, water, and health care.  Reaching them is challenging for even the most professional humanitarian organisations.  Despite all this, other countries continue to send flights of deportees to Haiti which is reprehensible.  Read the fhe full article linked and below for more information. 

Last month, the U.S. State Department released the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report.  As in previous years, the report noted serious shortcomings in the Haitian government's efforts to prevent and respond to human trafficking.  There is some good news, though - in 2014 the Haitian government enacted a law to criminalize human trafficking which is a welcome and much-needed step.  The country narrative for Haiti follows below.