URGENT ACTION: Forced Evictions at Camp Mormon

**According to a report from Haiti Libre, these families may be evicted in the next 24-48 hours. Please send emails and tweets today if possible!**

Here are some sample tweets: "@LaurentLamothe Please take action today to stop the illegal eviction of the extremely poor families - mostly women - at Camp Mormon, Delmas" or "Please RT: I call on #Haiti's PM @LaurentLamothe to stop illegal forced eviction of homeless families at Camp Mormon, Delmas. #noevictions"

Amnesty International, May 21: Three hundred families who were left homeless after the January 2010 earthquake face imminent forced eviction from their makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince. Amnesty International is concerned that if evicted they will once again be left homeless.

Residents of Camp Mormon in the municipality of Delmas in Port-au-Prince are at imminent risk of forced eviction. Camp residents told Amnesty International delegates that at 3 am on 14 May, approximately 20 men, including local municipal officials, entered the camp and warned them that they would be forcibly evicted in 15 days time if they did not vacate the land. Some of the men were armed and they opened fire on a group of camp residents, four of whom sustained injuries whilst trying to run for cover. Prior to this incident, residents of Camp Mormon have received numerous threats of eviction and of violence if they did not comply. On 8 February, local municipal officials accompanied by armed men threatened to burn down the camp and shoot residents if they did not leave. Camp residents have filed complaints at the Prosecutor’s Office in relation to both these incidents.

No court order for the eviction or any other legal notice has ever been presented and there has been no adequate consultation with the families or any offer of provision of alternative housing. The residents of Camp Mormon live in improvised shelters, and the camp has poor sanitary conditions and no running water. The camp’s population includes a number of women who are pregnant or have recently given birth, and the majority of families are headed by women.

At around 4pm on 4 May, all 126 families who lived in neighbouring Camp Mozayik were forcibly evicted by local municipal authorities, without any due process and without being offered any alternative accommodation. Amnesty International is seriously concerned that the same fate awaits the families of Camp Mormon.

Please write immediately in French or your own language:

• Calling on the Haitian authorities to ensure that residents of Camp Mormon are not evicted without due process, adequate notice, consultation and that all those affected have access to adequate alternative accommodation;
• Urging them to ensure the protection of the Camp Mormon residents and launch an investigation into the threats and alleged acts of violence perpetrated against them;
• Calling for Camp Mormon residents and the families evicted from Camp Mozayik to have access to durable solutions according to their needs and wishes, including adequate housing and access to services.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 2 JULY 2012 TO:

Prime Minister

Laurent Lamothe, Primature d'Haïti

33 Boulevard Harry Truman
Port-au-Prince, Haiti - HT-6110

Email: ecrire@laurentlamothe.com

Twitter: @LaurentLamothe "Calling on
Haitian PM @LaurentLamothe to stop
illegal forced evictions in Camp Mormon Delmas #Haiti Please RT"

Salutation: Monsieur le Premier

Ministre/Dear Prime Minister 

General Director of the Haitian Police

Mario Andrésol 
Directeur Général de la PNH

Police Nationale d’Haiti

Port-au-Prince
, Haiti

Email: marioandresol@yahoo.fr

Salutation: Monsieur le directeur / Dear Director

Mayor of Delmas

Wilson Jeudi, 
Mairie Delmas

Rue Charbonnière

Delmas 33, 
Haiti

B.P. 13399

Email: wilsonjeudy@yahoo.fr

Salutation: Monsieur le maire / Dear Mayor

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

Additional Information

The families living in Camp Mormon were among the hundreds of thousands who had been left homeless by the devastating January 2010 earthquake and who had no alternative but to make their own shelters wherever they could. 28 months later, they are among the nearly half a million people still living in makeshift camps where their rights to adequate housing and access to basic services are denied. Internally displaced persons in at least 60 per cent of the camps are under threat of forced evictions. Thousands of families have already been forcibly evicted since the earthquake without any due process and were made homeless once more. Durable solutions to provide adequate housing to those affected are slow to be implemented.

On 4 May, all 126 families who lived in neighbouring Camp Mozayik were forcibly evicted by local municipal authorities accompanied by an officer from the Haitian National Police, without any due process and without being offered any alternative accommodation. Their shelters were torn down before many of them could retrieve their belongings. Around half of the families have rebuilt their shelters several kilometres away on the northern outskirts of Port-au-Prince in an informal settlement known as Canaan, which was formed just after the earthquake. The settlement - which has no basic services, including no running water and sanitation – is now home to several thousand families and continues to grow as more victims of forced eviction arrive. The location of the other families forcibly evicted from Camp Mozayik is not known. A number of forced evictions of makeshift camps inhabited by earthquake victims were also carried out by municipal authorities in Delmas in mid-2011.

Three hundred families

Gender: Both, mostly women.

UA: 144/12 Index: AMR 36/004/2012 Issue Date: 21 May 2012