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STORY: UN / HAITI PRESSER
TRT: 03:45
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters (as seen from Long Island City)
10 JULY 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Youri Saadallah, Global Emergency Director, Norwegian Refugee Council:
“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 humanitarian assistance. Only one out of ten public health facilities with inpatient capacity are fully operational nationwide.”
4. Wide shot, press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Youri Saadallah, Global Emergency Director, Norwegian Refugee Council:
“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 was that people no longer feel safe. They are being stripped of [their] dignity. Women and children are bearing the brunt of this crisis. Sexual violence, including collective rape, is rampant. There is a disturbing sense that such abuses are becoming normal.”
6. Wide shot, press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Youri Saadallah, Global Emergency Director, Norwegian Refugee Council:
“In Port-au-Prince, we witnessed the expansion of armed groups. Gangs have infiltrated displacement sites. 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.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Youri Saadallah, Global Emergency Director, Norwegian Refugee Council:
“Children are growing up in violence. Children are growing up traumatized. Recruitment and use of children by armed groups increased by 200 per cent. Grave violations against children by 21 per cent in 2025 compared to the year before. One community center we visited removed 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 the country.”
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Moita, Director, Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery, IOM:
“Nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced. This is the highest number ever recorded on displacement in Haiti due to violence. Port-au-Prince remains the epicenter of Haiti's displacement crisis. Schools have become shelters. Communities have been uprooted. Safe space is almost non-existent 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 non-existent and therefore protection needs are immense.
11. Wide shot, press briefing room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Moita, Director, Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery, IOM:
“Families have been displaced multiple times. We met families in Belladère who had been displaced five times since Port-au Prince until they reached the end of the country. This crisis does not stop at Haiti’s borders. In Ouanaminthe and Belladère we witnessed a human impact of large-scale deportations from Dominican Republic. Humanitarian partners reported 600 to 700 forced routines, forced returns every day through SOMETHING Ouanaminthe alone, many people are arriving with nothing. Many have already fled violence inside Haiti before they were deported.”
13. Wide shot, end of press briefing
“Haiti's crisis has become deeper, more complex and more urgent,” said Youri Saadallah, Global Emergency Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, following a mission to Haiti.
Today (10 Jul) briefing reporters in New York from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he said 6.4 million people, more than half the country's population, require humanitarian assistance, and only one in ten public health facilities with inpatient capacity are fully operational nationwide.
“Speaking not only as a humanitarian, but also as a father and, quite frankly, as a human being, the situation we witnessed is unacceptable,” Saadallah said. “The strongest message we heard was that people no longer feel safe. They are being stripped of [their] dignity. Women and children are bearing the brunt of this crisis. Sexual violence, including collective rape, is rampant. There is a disturbing sense that such abuses are becoming normal.”
Saadallah said armed groups have expanded in Port-au-Prince and infiltrated displacement sites. “One mother told us that she has to sleep on top of her daughter every night to keep her safe,” he said. “And sadly, this story is only one among the many we heard throughout our visit.”
He added that the recruitment and use of children by armed groups increased by 200 per cent, and grave violations against children rose by 21 per cent in 2025 compared to the previous year. “One community center we visited removed all glass from its windows because staff fear that severely traumatized children may use the shards from these glass windows to harm themselves,” he said. “That's the reality within the country.”
Maria Moita, Director of the Department of Humanitarian Response and Recovery at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said nearly 1.5 million people are internally displaced, the highest number ever recorded due to violence in Haiti.
“Port-au-Prince remains the epicenter of Haiti's displacement crisis,” Moita said. “Schools have become shelters. Communities have been uprooted. Safe space is almost non-existent 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 non-existent and therefore protection needs are immense.”
Moita said the displacement crisis extends beyond Haiti's borders. “In Ouanaminthe and Belladère we witnessed a human impact of large-scale deportations from Dominican Republic. Humanitarian partners reported 600 to 700 forced returns every day through Ouanaminthe alone, many people are arriving with nothing. Many have already fled violence inside Haiti before they were deported.”
Saadallah and Moita are part of a group of Emergency Directors, including UN agency representatives and representatives of large NGOs, who undertook a mission to Haiti.
