Wednesday, Muscadin Jean Yves Jason, the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, has announced his intention to move thousands of people still living under tents in the area of ​​the Champ de Mars since January 12, 2010. Mr. Jason wants to move the 20,000 people living in this area, if his plan is approved by the Government.

Patrick Rouzier, a adviser in housing and reconstruction with the Haitian government has confirmed the project. He explained that Mr. Jason wanted to move the families of the Champ de Mars to a site located at Morne Cabrit, a mountain situated north of the capital.

For Mr. Jason banditry rampant on the Champ de Mars is one of the reasons for this operation, this area has become a place of commerce, of trade of any kind. The mayor of Port-au-Prince also said "We will act next week," by this words his intention is not to act against the people living in tents, for the moment, but against those who are engaged in all sorts of criminal activity.

Mr. Jason has indicated that the responsibles are elaborating a plan to compensate residents of the camp, but does not specify the amount.

At the 7th meeting of the Board of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), the President martelly had declared "...I am pleased to announce that a special program of large scale will be undertaken under the joint leadership of the Presidency, town halls and other national and international partners to allow to 30,000 people to return to their neighborhood of origin and to live in decent housing and urbanized areas. This project focuses on the rehabilitation of 16 neighborhoods related to six priority camps [...]"

Earlier this month the Mayor of Port-au-Prince had launched the operation "Sidewalks Free" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3493-haiti-social-the-mayor-of-port-au-prince-launches-the-operation-sidewalks-free.html and had indicated that he intended to continue the moving operations, particularly those living in the six camps, so-called priority [classified red] and that he intended to further coordinate its actions with the Presidency and the various humanitarian actors.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3561-haiti-social-they-want-to-leave-the-camps-but-they-have-nowhere-to-go.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3572-haiti-insecurity-the-problem-of-the-champ-de-mars-is-not-really-the-insecurity.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-3434-haiti-reconstruction-the-rehousing-a-priority-for-martelly-the-ihrc-and-the-hrf.html

HL/ HaitiLibre