PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti  – More than seven years after a powerful earthquake killed more than 300,000 people and left more than a million homeless,  the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) says nearly 3,000 people are still living in camps that were erected to accommodate displaced people for only three years.

The IOM Health, Protection, Return and Camp Management Operations (CMO) teams said 2,900 people, including 315 children under the age of four, and 723 between the ages five and 18 years old, are still living in camps erected after the 2010 earthquake and were expected to accommodate displaced people for only three years.

“The biggest challenge we face is to calm down the frustrations. IOM is the last humanitarian actor who accompanies this camp and the population has many expectations, which is normal,” said IOM CMO team member, Fred Standley Vincent.

Since 2010, the number of humanitarian organisations working in the camps has been reduced drastically.

There are 37,967 displaced people still living in 27 camps despite the efforts of the Haitian government and the international community to assist and relocate 97 per cent of the displaced population.

They noted that since the earthquake, 1,528 camps have been closed and more than 1.5 million people have been relocated with the support of several international donors.