UNITED NATIONS, CMC – The Director General of the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Thursday that the Haiti crisis could impact regional and global security.
Amy Pope told reporters in New York that the situation in Haiti represents “one of the most complex and urgent crises in the world with implications for regional and global stability.”
As heavily armed gangs expand their control and public institutions are facing intense pressure, delivering humanitarian aid on the ground is becoming harder as funding is dwindling, Pope said.
“Haiti has not received the level of attention or funding that is so desperately needed,” said Pope, who has just returned from a high-level visit to Haiti.
She urged the international community to increase its support for the crisis in Haiti, pointing out that over a million people are currently internally displaced in the French-speaking Caribbean country.
Engaging with families who were forced to flee their homes at a Port-au-Prince center for displaced people, Pope recalled the plight of a mother living under a tarp with her children, who, in two months, had fled her neighborhood three times.
“These are not just statistics —they are lives caught in crisis repeatedly,”
Currently contributing to efforts across more than 50 displacement sites even in areas affected by violence, Pope said the IOM provides support in areas such as shelter, camp management, protection, emergency water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
In a meeting with Haitian government officials, Pope hoped to identify concrete ways to strengthen migration governance, broaden access to legal documentation, and strengthen the reintegration of Haitian returnees.
The IOM said 85 percent of the Haitian capital is currently under gang control and that communities are constantly being uprooted by violence and instability.
In the last year, the IOM said nearly 200,000 Haitians were deported back from neighboring countries, mainly the Dominican Republic, adding pressure to resources already under strain.
Pope said recent funding cuts have forced IOM to halt some of its operations in Haiti as the situation worsens.
Faced with unthinkable hardships, the “Haitian people need support -and they need it now,” Pope said.
But she said that while the IOM remains committed to working alongside the Haitian people and the Haitian Government to restore safety, dignity, and opportunities for people across the country, “the cost of inaction will not only be measured in lives lost but also in broader instability that affects us all.”
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