Camp St Louis de Gonzague

A very serious and potentially dangerous situation has arisen in one of the largest refugee camps. 12000 people are living in a tent city called Camp St Louis de Gonzague which is about 2 square kilometers in size. The conditions in the camp are abhorrent. Endless rows of tents, donated by MSF sit inches from each other. Kids with nothing to do and only very basic necessities wander aimlessly around the camp, many of them without adequate clothing and seemingly more than half without shoes.

There is no proper drainage, and no sizable open spaces. Recently, the situation in the camp has degenerated because the director of the school where the land sits (the school is will not be functional within the next six months), along with the local mayor have demanded that the population leave the area within 8 days. They have not, however provided an alternate location, let alone a location with the basic services and infrastructure required to sustain the population. The mayor has not provided adequate explanation for their expulsion.

There are rumors that the area will be shared, and there are also rumours that the area will be given for use to non-Haitian organizations in part due to its proximity to the MSF installation. The community has organized itself but some of these organizers have come under threat. Their situation is dire and the Haitian population has been through so much that civil unrest could very well be the result of these mass expulsions.