Haiti migrants no longer stranded on desolate border
ANSE-A-PITRES, Haiti (AP) — Within the next month, authorities hope to move nearly 2,400 people out of six encampments by providing subsidies for them to rent homes for a year in southeastern Haiti. The International Organization for Migration is coordinating the effort with $2 million from a U.N. emergency fund.
“We’re seeing that they move to houses for a year to give them enough time to identify economic opportunities so they can support themselves,” said Fabien Sambussy, the IOM’s operations chief in Haiti.
The border camps, with clusters of makeshift shacks that bake in the sun and flood when it rains, are filled with destitute migrants who often speak a mix of Haitian Creole and Spanish. More than half are children, and health authorities feared that a growing number of cholera cases would turn into a more widespread outbreak.
The camps emerged on the outskirts of Anse-a-Pitres last June as increasing numbers of people left the Dominican Republic. A few thousand people found nowhere to go in Haiti, often because they had been gone so long they didn’t have the social connections needed to survive on the poorer side of the island of Hispaniola.
New council sworn in to organize Haiti runoff vote
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A new council has been sworn in to oversee Haiti’s electoral process and organize a twice-postponed runoff vote while a short-term caretaker government is in power.
The nine-member Provisional Electoral Council ratified Wednesday is tasked with concluding an electoral cycle by holding a runoff to elect a president and the final members of parliament.
Council director Mosler Georges says “the achievement of good elections is our mission.”
Violent opposition protests and deep public suspicions of fraud favoring former President Michel Martelly’s chosen successor derailed the runoff in January. It was postponed for the first time in December.
An accord negotiated in early February called for a rescheduled runoff to be held April 24.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby says Washington is “encouraged” by the re-establishment of the electoral council.
Boost to vote hopes as Haiti electoral body sworn in
Port-au-Prince (AFP) – The nine members of Haiti’s new provisional electoral council (CEP) took office Wednesday, tasked with relaunching the election process that was left in limbo in January after opposition protests.
“The task ahead is immense, giving hope to millions of our compatriots who are waiting,” said Mosler Georges, executive director of the CEP, which is tasked with organizing the elections.
Haiti’s interim leader, Jocelerme Privert, officially swore in his cabinet Monday, promising an urgent push forward to get the Caribbean nation’s electoral process back on track.