IOM is supporting the Haitian government
in a new surge to register people displaced by the earthquake and to identify
their home areas.
The registration is part of a broader
strategy to address the issue of congested temporary settlements throughout
Port-au-Prince. The objective is to enable as many people as possible to
return to their places of origin.
The registration exercise will focus on priority temporary settlements, which have been identified as suffering from over-crowding. It will begin in the Champ de Mars settlement, a large public park which faces Haiti's destroyed presidential palace.
Champ de Mars is currently home to an estimated 16,000 people, many living in shelters made from plastic sheeting and local materials. They have access to water and latrines, but camp management experts warn that the situation is unsustainable in the long term.
This afternoon, teams of IOM staff will fan out through the Champ de Mars and distribute colour coded tokens, signifying age bracket, to every resident.
Heads of families will be asked to go to a series of registration points with their tokens on Wednesday, where they will provide their family details and home address, as well as details of whether they were owners or tenants. They will also be issued with a temporary identification card.
Organizers stress that the cards are purely for the purpose of denoting place of origin and do not imply any other entitlement at this stage.
This latest strategic surge reflects a sense of urgency ahead of Haiti's rainy season, which begins mid March.
The goal is to find shelter solutions for as many Haitians as possible, focusing upon priority areas, before the rains begin. Solutions include:
=B7 Where possible, the government and partners will enable displaced people to return home and rebuild.
=B7 People should seek shelter in the premises of a host family, such as relatives or friends.
=B7 If neither of the above is possible, the government and its partners will plan and sanitize the largest ad hoc settlements where people have gathered since the earthquake.
=B7 Where none of these alternative options are possible, IOM will support the government in the establishment of new planned sites.
To date, 415 spontaneous sites with a total population of 551,140 individuals (110,285 families) have been identified in the following communes: Bel Air, Bourdon, Carrefour, Cite Soleil, Croix des Bouquets, Delmas, Deprez, Grand Goave, Gressier, Kenscoff, Lasile, Leogane, Nazon, Petionville, Port-au- Prince and Tabarre.
This represents an increase of 84 sites since the last report, as identification is progressing. In addition, nine sites with a total population of 48,074 individuals or 9,715 families have been identified and designated by the government as transitional settlements sites.
Out of the total 415 sites, 21 sites have been prioritized for decongestion. The total population in those sites is 217,960 individuals and 44, 470 families, which is about half the size of the population in all the spontaneous sites identified so far.
In Leogane, 83 sites have been identified, with a total population of some 51,095 individuals (9,679 families). In Jacmel, approximately 80,000 families are living without shelter on four large sites, as well as many smaller ones. In Petit Goave, 98,989 displaced people are living in 367 sites. A further 88 sites have been identified in Grand Goave.
For more information, please contact Mark Turner at IOM Port-au-Prince, Tel. 509 3643 79 14. Email mturner@iom.int Or Jean-Philippe Chauzy, Tel. 41 22 7179361. Email pchauzy@iom.int
For more information on the latest cluster reporting and data from Haiti, please go to the following link: http://oneresponse.info/disasters/haiti/Pages/default.aspx