The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reported in 2022 that internal displacement in Haiti had reached levels approaching those seen after the 2010 earthquake, with hundreds of thousands of people having fled their homes due to gang violence, armed conflict, and the general insecurity that had engulfed large parts of Port-au-Prince and was spreading to other departments. The comparison to the post-earthquake displacement was stark: in 2010 it had taken a natural disaster of catastrophic proportions to produce such displacement; in 2022 it was the slow-motion collapse of governance and the unchecked expansion of criminal violence.
Displaced families faced desperate situations. Those who had relatives elsewhere moved in with them, straining household resources and creating new poverty. Those without family networks ended up in displacement sites that offered minimal protection, inadequate food and water, and no clear pathway to safe, durable shelter. Children in displacement sites had their education disrupted, their safety threatened, and their development compromised by conditions of chronic stress and deprivation.
The displacement pattern had a specific geography that reflected the distribution of gang violence. Neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince where the G9, the 400 Mawozo, and other networks had established or were establishing control generated the most significant displacement. As gang territory expanded, displacement expanded with it, creating a constantly shifting map of affected communities.
Humanitarian organizations providing services to displaced populations faced enormous operational challenges. The same security conditions that drove displacement also made it dangerous for humanitarian workers to access displacement sites in some areas. The scale of need far exceeded available resources, and the absence of any political solution meant that displacement was likely to continue growing rather than decreasing.