Left-wing MEPs and members of the Renew Europe group expressed their alarm at the catastrophic humanitarian situation and chaos in Haiti during a plenary session debate with the European Commission in the evening of Wednesday 20 October in Strasbourg.
They all view the 14 August earthquake as yet another disaster in this Caribbean country plagued by gang violence and lacking a government. They therefore called on the EU to do its utmost to meet the enormous humanitarian needs of the population, while agreeing that humanitarian aid cannot solve everything.
The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, stressed that more than 800,000 Haitians are in need of emergency humanitarian aid and that currently the UN humanitarian appeal is only 17% funded.
Recalling that the Commission had mobilised €17 million in humanitarian aid this year, including €3 million after the earthquake, and that Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčic had visited the country in September (see EUROPE 12794/13), she assured that this aid would continue in 2022.
The results of the needs assessment are expected in early November and a conference on reconstruction is planned for the end of the year, she said.
Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium) stressed that the political crisis has added to the humanitarian crisis, that insecurity has become widespread, with massacres perpetrated by armed gangs, and that more than 4 million Haitians, mainly women and children, need humanitarian aid.
“Our priority must be to respond to the humanitarian needs and cooperate with local partners for effective aid. But Haiti cannot get out of this situation without a return to the rule of law and combatting impunity, which remains a major problem for the Haitian people”, said the MEP.
Faced with these enormous needs and increasing violence, Jan-Christoph Oetjen (Renew Europe, Germany) stressed that humanitarian aid must reach those who need it most. Hannes Heide (S&D, Austria) said the EU must do everything it can to bring about stable conditions.
Criticising “the neo-liberal policies imposed by Bill Clinton and the second coup d’état organised by France and Washington against President Aristide in 2004”, Irish MEP Mick Wallace (The Left) attacked those “who have prevented this country from recovering since the end of French colonialism”.
With an earthquake a month after the assassination of President Moïse, assassinations every day, an average of five kidnappings a day and gang rapes, “Haitians are not living, they are surviving, and thousands of people are suffering. The silence of the international community is a disgrace”, said Caroline Roose (Greens/EFA, France).
The Commissioner recalled that the purpose of Mr Lenarcic’s visit to Haiti was to shed light on this ongoing humanitarian crisis. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)