Port-au-Prince, January 12th 2018 - On the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, the Unit for the Construction of Housing and Public Buildings (UCLBP in French) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) wish to recall that 97 % of the population initially displaced by the earthquake was able to leave the camps.

Eight years after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake of January 2010, which destroyed and damaged more than 300,000 homes and displaced 1.5 million people (IDPs) in 1,555 camps, the progress made by the Haitian Government and its partners has been significant.

Indeed, in the last 8 years, 97% of the populations initially displaced by the earthquake were able to leave the camps. This return was facilitated by the implementation of innovative programs developed by national and international partnerships as well as the individual efforts of IDPs who identified their own solution for leaving the camps.

However, according to the latest data from IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), about 37,600 people (or 9,255 households) remain displaced throughout 26 camps in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and the Palmes region (communes of Léogâne and Gressier). According to the DTM, women and children constitute 71% of the total displaced populations and 12 of the listed sites (hosting 17,000 people) are located in medium or high risk areas of floods and landslides.

Due to their socio-economic difficulties, their susceptibility to experience violence and exploitation, their lack of access to drinking water and sanitation as well as their exposure to natural disasters due to the precariousness of their habitats (tents and precarious shelters), the affected population remains amongst the most vulnerable in the country.

The current lack of funding has resulted in a massive reduction in the number of partners working to provide a durable solution to the displaced population (relocation or integration of camps in their neighborhoods). By 2018, IOM will be the only international partner active in IDP camps. Projections from the Humanitarian Coordination and the Camp Coordination and Management (CCCM) sector, managed by UCLBP and co-managed by IOM, predict that more than 36,000 people will remain displaced in 25 camps in 2018 due to lack of funding. It is probable that this situation will become permanent if the necessary resources are not allocated to respond to this prolonged crisis, whereas the solutions implemented so far have proved their effectiveness.

On the day following the presentation of the Humanitarian Response Plan and on this sober anniversary, UCLBP and IOM wish to reiterate the importance funding the last effort to assist the displaced population so that 2018 concludes the last humanitarian consequences of the deadly earthquake of January 12, 2010.