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Haiti: City of Jacmel to close last earthquake camps
(Reuters) – Efforts are underway to move the last homeless quake survivors from camps in the city of Jacmel, Haiti, into rented accommodation over the next three months, marking the closure of all the city’s camps, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said.
A month ago, 2,891 Haiti citizens were still living in the last four of 36 makeshift camps set up in the southern port city of Jacmel following the devastating earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation in January 2010, according to the latest IOM figures.
It is hoped that relocating the displaced families will help relaunch the city’s ailing tourism industry and arts and crafts sector, which are important sources of income for many of its 41,000 residents.
Each family will be given a year’s rent subsidy and extra financial and transport assistance to help them move their belongings from the camps into housing.
Elsewhere in Haiti, there are still 390,000 people living in 575 makeshift camps and settlements, about a quarter of the total displaced by the earthquake, according to latest figures from the IOM.
Many of the remaining camps are dotted in and around the capital Port-au-Prince. Here many Haiti citizens struggle to survive in flimsy tents and shacks made from bed sheets, tarpaulin and scrap metal, with limited access to clean water and sanitation.
Poor hygiene means Haiti’s homeless face a renewed threat of cholera as the hurricane season gets underway, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) recently warned.
