News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. June 22, 2011: The United Nations also wants countries to suspend all deportations to Haiti.
“Despite the recent elections and ongoing reconstruction efforts, Haiti, weakened by the earthquake, cannot yet ensure adequate protection or care especially for some vulnerable groups in case of return,” Adrian Edwards, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.
The body wants all governments to suspend involuntary returns to Haiti, given the precarious conditions that continue to persist in the Caribbean nation 18 months after the devastating January 2010 earthquake.
An estimated 680,000 people are still displaced within Haiti, living in over 1,000 tented camps in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and other earthquake-affected areas. An unknown number remains outside the country.
