By year’s end 2024, internal displacement in Haiti had reached 1.4 million people — the highest level since the 2010 earthquake — as the gang offensive of February-March, the continued expansion of criminal territorial control in subsequent months, and new gang activity in the Artibonite and other departments pushed hundreds of thousands more from their homes. The displacement crisis of 2024 was approaching the scale of the post-earthquake emergency but without the discrete event that had focused international attention and resources on the 2010 situation.
The displaced population included people who had been forced from their homes multiple times as they moved from one area of relative safety to another only to find the violence following them. Serial displacement — fleeing once, relocating, then being displaced again — was becoming a common experience for families in the most affected areas, depleting their economic resources and psychological resilience with each successive move.
Displacement sites that had been established in 2022 and 2023 as temporary emergency measures had become semi-permanent settlements as the conditions preventing return persisted month after month. Schools that had served as temporary shelters continued to house displaced families, preventing students from using educational facilities and perpetuating the educational disruption that was itself a major consequence of the crisis.
The International Organization for Migration and UNHCR called for emergency resources to improve conditions in displacement sites, provide support for durable solutions for displaced families, and maintain the protection services needed in environments where vulnerable populations faced continued risks. They emphasized that displacement at this scale had long-term consequences for social cohesion, economic recovery, and political stability that would be felt for years beyond the immediate crisis.