Youri Saadallah (Norwegian Refugee Council) and Maria Moita (IOM) on the humanitarian situation in Haiti - Press Conference

All right.
Let's go on to our guests.
Are you connected? If we can print them up on the screen? Yes, we are.
Great.
So I want to welcome uri and Maria.
I will let you guys open up and then we'll take some questions.
Go ahead.
Thank you very much.
And good afternoon.
And more importantly, thank you for the opportunity to brief you from Haiti on our recent mission.
Our intelligency mission brought together six emergency directors from IGA, IOM, NRC, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO.
Over the past days, we traveled to Power Prince, the West S Artibi departments, meeting displaced families, humanitarian partners, government representatives and daughters.
What we found was clear compared to our last emergency director's visit, Haiti's crisis has become deeper, more complex, and more urgent.
Just a few numbers, 6.4 million people, more than half of the population of the country require huane assistance.
Only one out of ten public health facilities within patient capacity are fully operational nationwide.
So in our role, we regularly visit humanitarian crises around the world.
Yet what we saw in Haiti affected us deeply.
I leave the country in a few minutes speaking not only as a humanitarian but also as a father and quite frankly, as a human being, the situation we witnessed is unacceptable.
The strongest message we heard from was that people no longer feel safe.
They are being stripped of our dignity.
Women and children are being the brunt of this crisis.
Sexual violence, including collective rape is rampant.
There is a disturbing sense that such abuses are becoming normal.
Women led organizations, and you referred to them earlier, told us that they are overwhelmed by the scale of trauma, by the scale of suffering.
What we heard very clearly is that the bodies of women and girls are being used as the battlefield in Haiti.
In Por Prince, we witnessed the expansion of armed groups.
Gangs have infiltrated displacement sites.
One mother one mother told us that she has to sleep on top of her daughter every night.
To keep her safe.
And sadly, this story is only one among the many we heard throughout our visit.
Children are growing up in violence.
Children are growing up traumatized.
Recruitment and use of children by armed groups increased by 200%, grave violations against children by 21% in 2025 compared to the year before.
One community center we visited and remove all glass from its windows because staff fear that severely traumatized children may use the shards from these glass windows to harm themselves.
That's the reality within a country.
We also visited Sark Hospital in Arti Bonit and Opital University a Lape in Power Prints.
Health workers spoke of overwhelming case laws, severe exhaustion, growing mental health needs, skyrocketing maternal mortality, teenage pregnancy, increasing numbers of survivors of sexual violence.
We lost count of number of the women we met just having given birth, and we were forced to sleep on the floor with their newborn babies.
And yet, thanks to the unwavering dedication of the health workers and the director of this hospital, whom we met during our visit at La Hospital, this hospital is the last functioning public hospital in metropolitan Power Prince.
Three years ago, its future was uncertain.
Today, thanks to the complimentary support provided by multiple international partners, it continues to operate, serving half 1 million people and saving lives every day.
So with that, I will now hand over to my colleague Maria.
Thank you.
The second major message from our mission concerns displacement and migration.
Nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced.
This is the highest number ever recorded on displacement in Haiti due to violence.
Port of France remains the epicenter of Haiti's displacement crisis.
Schools have become shelters, communities have been uprooted.
Safe space is almost nonexistent in Haiti.
Displacement sites are extremely congested.
There is no space to sleep or live with dignity.
There's no space to install the most basic services such as latrines or cooking areas.
People are living on top of each other.
Privacy is nonexistence, and therefore, protection needs are immense.
Families have been displaced multiple times.
We met families in Bel Ader who had been displaced five times since Port-au-Prince until they reached the end of the country.
This crisis does not stop at eighty's borders.
At Onaman Bladerre, we witnessed the human impact of large scale deportations from the Dominican Republic.
Humanitarian partners reported six to 700 forced returns every day through Onaman alone.
Many people are arriving with nothing.
Many have already fled violence inside Haiti before they were deported.
One encounter captured this reality.
In Beldev, we met a 15-year-old girl who had given birth just the day before.
She was deported with her newborn baby, who was still wearing the hospital bracelet.
We repeatedly heard concerns about deportations taking place with limited notice and coordination, making it harder to provide assistance and protection.
While we were in Beladea, at least two buses carrying dozens of Asians arrived at the border within a matter of minutes.
This must stop.
Families are trapped in a cycle of violence, displacement, migration, deportation, and forced return.
Many families cannot safely return to their homes because armed groups remain present and their homes were burned.
Their message was simple.
They want safety, dignity, and a future.
Relocation alone is not the answer.
People need the pathways to safe, voluntary and dignified solutions to return when conditions allow.
I now hand over to Yuri.
Thank you, Noya.
Following our last visit, we fear that Haiti was heading towards the worst case scenario.
Today, that scenario is here.
And there's a growing sense that things will get worse before getting better.
So the question now for us is how we can act quickly to prevent an even deeper crisis.
With that, we have three asks for us today.
Number one, accelerate support to Haitian organizations.
The clearest message we heard came from Haitian responders themselves.
Supporting local leadership is not simply a commitment.
It is an operational necessity.
We need a Haitian solution for a Haitian problem.
Local actors are the past of this response, the present of this response, and the future of its response and the future.
They need more direct, flexible, and multi year funding and a stronger voice in decision making.
Two, we need to protect humanitarian space.
Humanitarian access remains possible, but it is becoming more difficult.
National staff face violence, kidnapping, an enormous psychological strain on a daily basis.
Preserving humanitarian neutrality, clear distinction from political and security action, and community acceptance is essential if assistance is to reach those in need.
Third and last, we need to invest in humanitarian action and beyond.
With the humanitarian response plan for Haiti only 28% funded.
Immediate humanitarian support is urgently needed.
But humanitarian action alone cannot break this cycle.
Long term investments in development and recovery is equally critical.
Despite everything we saw, we leave Haiti with hope and we understand the day of hope not because the changes are getting smaller, but because of the extraordinary resilience of the Haitian people and the determination of local responders and our teams on the ground, we continue to serve the population.
The people of Haiti continue to show remarkable courage.
So now the international community must match that courage with urgency, resources, and solidarity.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you very much, Yuri and Maria.
I'll now turn the floor over for questions.
First question goes to Gabriel Elizondo.
Hello, Maria and Yuri.
Thank you for this briefing on this important topic.
My name is Gabriel Elizondo from Al Jaeera English.
I have several questions.
I'll ask them as succinctly as possible so my colleagues can jump in as well if they'd like.
My first question is to Maria.
You mentioned the Dominican Republic.
I More than 95% of the Haitians who are being deported back to Haiti come from the Dominican Republic.
What is the IOM's position when it comes to that in terms of what are your requests of the Dominican Republic government to halt those deportations? And if so, I'm sure the DR government says, well, what does the IOM suggest we do? What is your answer to that? Do you have some sort of help for the Dominican Republic on their side of the border? I hope that was clear.
And then for Yuri, my question to you is, you mentioned that the funding gap.
Can you specifically give us an example of something that the NRC is not able to do in Haiti because you do not have the funds to do it? And my last question for either of you very briefly is the gang suppression force.
I know you don't speak for that organization, but only a few hundred of their soldiers have been deployed of the 5,500 mandated.
Are you, from your position, from the organizations you represent, hopeful that if that force does come to fruition in Haiti, it will help in the efforts that you are trying to achieve.
Okay.
Thank you for that question.
Yes, IOM is also present in Dominican Republic and working with the government on this matter.
This is a very complex issue, and first and foremost, it has to do with the situation in Haiti and the need and hence our message for support people to have conditions to live in Haiti.
In Dominican Republic, the issue is we recognize that any government has a sovereignty right to deport people that are illegally in their countries.
Our ask and we repeatedly asked to the Dominican Republic government is to do it the process and ensure that there's dignity of the people that are involved in that process.
So we have asked or if we have access to information to the manifest and that we can be there to provide assistance to the people that are being deported, we will be in a better position to assist them.
Thank you.
You too, Maria.
And thank you also for the question on the funding gap.
You asked about NRC.
I'm tempted to answer from an intelligence perspective since we came here as part of the Intelligence Standing Committee.
The gaps are everywhere.
We can scale up our response.
We are committed to our teams already.
We are able, if funding is provided to scale up to scale up within Power prints because we have the needs the capacity and the expertise to secure access across the control areas.
We have the capacity to expand in departments which are largely under resourced at the moment, and I'm thinking in particular of a place like Atibonit, which is now one of the many hotspots.
I'm thinking also at the border in Bela Adeire that we visited also.
There are a number of things we can do.
Maybe one very concrete example.
For this response to scale up, the funding is obviously essential.
There are a number of key enablers that we need to push through.
One of them is U has, for example, our ability the ability to use UNas for our team to get to the places at the forefront of the needs.
So Just to sum up, with more resources, this response can take shape, can continue addressing more needs.
And that's across the board for organizations like mine, organization like Maria's and all the organizations represented in the country and I want to maybe highlight in particular national actors who are at the forefront of this response and which showed us how capable they are and how limited they are by the current lack of resources.
Maybe to finish on this point with a sense of hope, this um We are encouraged by some recent allocations which enable to develop further that response we want, and we need more of that.
So that's on your point on funding gap.
Maybe moving to your question about the gang suppression force, and I will ask Osamya to compliment.
What we see is that 2026 offers a critical window of opportunity for Haiti, and that's the window of opportunity we want to make the most of.
UN and humanitarian operations are completely, entirely separate from the gang suppression force and its work.
All humanitarian we engage with the various interactions we had stress that we want to see security situation improving throughout Haiti and bring about the stability the country does need to continue developing.
At the same time, simultaneous investments in humanite aid and basic service delivery are essential.
So linking above your questions, we see that the gang suppression force is happening.
This is separate from what we do, but we are calling for funding to continue coming and increasingly coming to the work of the humanitarians.
We hope we address your questions.
We'll go back to you.
Okay.
Great.
Next question is from Jacqueline Charles, who is online.
Yes.
Hi.
You can hear me, right? All right.
I have a question, just in terms of when you were talking to people, just yesterday and today, the Electoral Council basically announced a partial timetable for elections, and they haven't given a date, but they're going to be opening up their registration period.
I spoke to the prime minister this week and, you know, they're talking about elections and getting people back into these neighborhoods.
And I'm just wondering whether or not people talked about elections? Do you think it's even possible You know, in this particular settings, I mean, you guys have painted a very grim situation of the reality of the ground that it's not just the violence, but it's also the deportations that are happening.
And then separately, I wanted to know because today in the United States, more than 300,000 Haitians on temporary protected status are going to lose their ability to work.
Their work permits expired.
Do you think Haiti can absorb 300,000, you know, deportees from the US at this point? Thank you.
So maybe I will comment on your first question regarding the elections and let my colleague Maria talk about the TPS issue.
Look, we engage with the governments and we have a fruitful dialogue yesterday with a number of ministers, departments and ministries.
Their message was extremely clear.
IEC requires a Haitian solution for a Haitian problem.
And their direction of travel is also equally clear.
They have a roadmap in place and they have clear focus area.
One is security, the other one is election.
We heard that message loud and clear, and we fully respect and listen carefully.
At the same time, our work as humanitarian is to alleviate the suffering of the people of Haiti and in support of all those efforts.
It's not for us to comment as to whether the election can or cannot take place.
What we do see and what we saw very vividly is that we have to respond to these urgent urgent needs.
And you're right.
This is a grim picture we depict it because it's a grim picture of the reality we saw, and that's what our efforts are focused on more than not.
Maybe Marians Thank you for the question.
This is, of course, an element that the team here in Haiti is considering and watching with some concern.
The issue that pertains to the return of such a large number of patients to Haiti is the same that we've been highlighting here.
The humanitarian needs on the ground and the absolute necessity to seriously invest on development beyond the humanitarian assistance.
As Yuri just mentioned, as humanitarians, our job is to ensure the most critical lifesaving needs are addressed, but what we need to see in Haiti is an investment in longer term solutions in development so that the society can grow, thrive, and receive people that come from abroad as well.
Thank you.
Okay.
Next question goes to Dulcie Lambach.
Hi.
Thanks very much.
I just wanted to ask you a little bit more about the GSF because it looks like there's at least 500 troops or whatever officers working now from Chad and a few other countries.
And it looks like they're doing patrols.
So in your visit to Haiti, did you see these patrols and do you think they've actually had some a positive effect.
Mike Waltz, the US envoy to the UN recently tweeted he was there.
I don't know how long he was there, but he said there was progress from the GSF's presence.
Would you agree with that? Thanks.
Thank you.
Quite frankly, I think it's early to tell, and I'm not sure it's our place to comment on.
I think it's still in an early stage of the deployment of the force.
What we did see and what we heard very loudly and clearly is a high expectation that the security situation will improve for the people of Haiti.
What is very much at the top of our mind is the need for a clear distinction about the work of the security agenda and the ita agenda.
And for that distinction to take place, we need to have a constructive dialogue and ensuring that there's understanding between the various roles of the various actors.
We have seen through our experiences with the multinational security support mission that's a clear and visible distinction between the humanitarian security actors help us to safeguard the humanitarian space that we need to continue responding and increasing our response.
Also, importantly, that distinction is important to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers and preserve access and acceptance from the communities.
That's really the main lenses through which we are looking at this, and then yeah, that time will show what the impact on the situation will be.
Gabriel, back to you.
Thank you.
This is Gabriel Rozano from Al Jaeer English.
Again, I just have a quick factual follow up.
Yuri, I think you mentioned in your part of the briefing that gangs are present in all and or most of the displacement sites, if I heard you correctly, correct me if I'm wrong.
Could you just clarify, do you and your partners have access to all of the sites, or do you have to engage directly with any of the gangs to gain access? For those of us that aren't there, could you kind of explain your interaction with the gangs vis-à-vis access to sites? Sure.
I believe I was referring to Paw Prince and thanks again for the question.
So particularly in Power Prince, indeed, a large part of the territory is controlled by gangs.
And we do have access.
We do have access through negotiations, through access negotiations, through some level of engagement, which is key, as we do in in other contexts, we engage, we dialogue, we negotiate so that we can actually serve the people in there in great needs.
So how does that take place? That takes place through sustained engagement, acceptance, sustained dialogue, Also, using the expertise of our national colleagues, national actors, and to find a common ground so that actual assistance can be delivered to the.
That's in nutsll how it's happening.
I not tell it's easy.
It's extremely hard.
It's extremely hard.
But that's the job.
And that's important, and we believe that it's important that we continue to invest in those capacities so that risk this response can continue being enabled and further developed.
Thank you very much.
Muna Autu with Al Abi.
Just a quick question regarding the problem of housing.
You've both detailed the critical problem and shortage of dignified housing for displaced families in Haiti.
So since yesterday, there was a new report that was launched by SDG 11 Global Senthesis report.
We're just wondering if you are currently coordinating with SDG 11 Office to ensure your emergency shelter responses are aligned with these long term standards for sustainable urban recovery, or are these two separate efforts? And thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So the issue of housing, of course, intersects with the issue of shelter, which is the type of shelter that is provided for the humanitarian context.
I think the humanitarian architecture or the way in which the organizations organize themselves is the way to ensure that articulation.
And we have the HC.
So the humanitarian coordinator, who is also the development coordinator, is the person that is in charge to make sure that the development solutions are linked to the humanitarian issues, problems and solutions as well.
So when we are, of course, in the limit of providing humanitarian assistance, that's not the purview of the humanitarian actors, but that coordination is happening on the ground on a regular basis through this position that I mentioned.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I see no further questions.
So I would like once more to thank our guests, risa Dala of the Norwegian Refugee Council and Maria Moita of IOM.
Thank you very much for your briefing and best of luck on your work as we go forward.
And to all of you in the press, thank you and have a good weekend.
Thank you.
Thanks.