Five years after the earthquake of January 2010, according to data from the Displacement Monitoring Matrix (DTM), 14.970 families or 60.801 people are still live in 45 camps in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince and its surroundings.

However, for those living in these camps, daily life is still characterized by extreme vulnerability. These people have limited or no access to basic services and the situation could deteriorate with the end of various humanitarian programs,dedicated to the problems of camps and informal neighborhoods.

Faced with this situation, the NGO Coordination Committee (CCO-Haiti), a consortium of 49 international NGOs working in the areas of humanitarian cooperation and development in Haiti, expressed his concern about the stoppage of several programs between June and September 2015 for the relocation of displaced persons and access to basic services and feared a degradation of living conditions of people living in these IDP sites.

CCO points out that "although the organization of elections is currently the priority of the Haitian government, the fact remains that the Haitian State has the obligation to continue working for respect and promotion of human rights for all persons on its territory."

Finally, the CCO encourages the Haitian State to ensure that the formalization programs of IDP camps and regularization of informal neighborhoods do not result in forced evictions, provide security of tenure for all, and provide solutions that enable poor and other vulnerable groups to access adequate housing.

The members of the CCO Haiti, remain willing to work together with the Haitian government to find a fair and effective solution for the most vulnerable people living in camps and return communities in Haiti.

HL/ HaitiLibre