Report: 1 million Haitians in 1,300 squalid camps
UNITED NATIONS – A report says more than one million people are still living in 1,300 mostly unmanaged camps nine months after Haiti's devastating earthquake. Sexual violence is rampant and gangs often roam freely, it says.
Refugees International, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that advocates to end refugee crises, says its investigators found during a recent visit to Haiti that less than 30 percent of the camps have managers. That means more than 70 percent of the camps are unable to communicate or coordinate with the international humanitarian community.
The report, released Thursday, said the humanitarian response "appears paralyzed" and called for urgent action to protect the basic human rights of quake victims living in the squalid overcrowded camps.