Number of children recruited by gangs in Haiti rises by 70%, says UNICEF

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Gangs in Haiti are recruiting children at unprecedented levels, with the number of minors targeted soaring 70% in the past year, according to a report released Monday by UNICEF.

Currently, between 30 and 50 percent of all gang members in the violence-ridden country are children, according to the UN.

“This is a very worrying trend,” said Geeta Narayan, UNICEF representative in Haiti.

The increase comes as poverty deepens and violence increases amid political instability, with gangs that control 85% of Port-au-Prince attacking formerly peaceful communities in a bid to take full control of the capital.

Young boys are often used as informants “because they are invisible and not seen as a threat,” Narayan said in a telephone interview from Haiti. Some are given weapons and forced to participate in attacks.

Girls, on the other hand, are forced to cook, clean and even be used as “wives” by gang members.

“They are not doing this voluntarily,” Narayan said. “Even when they are armed, the child here is the victim. »

Easy prey

In a country where more than 60% of the population lives on less than $4 a day and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are starving or close to starvation, recruiting children is often easy.

A juvenile who was in a gang said he received $33 every Saturday, while another said he received thousands of dollars in his first month in a gang operation, according to a Council report UN Security Council.

“Children and families are sometimes increasingly desperate due to extreme poverty,” Narayan said.

If children refuse to join a gang, armed men often threaten them or their families, or simply kidnap them.

The gangs also prey on children separated from their families after their expulsion from the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola.

“These children are being targeted more and more,” Narayan said.

Gangs are not the only threat, as a vigilante movement launched last year to target suspected gang members is gaining momentum.

UNICEF said children “are often viewed with suspicion and risk being labeled spies or even killed by vigilante movements.” When they defect or refuse to join the violence, their lives and safety are immediately in danger.

A video posted to social media last week after gangs raided an area around an upscale community showed the body of a child lying next to an adult who was also killed. Police said at least 28 suspected gang members were killed that day as residents armed with guns and machetes fought alongside police.

Increased vulnerability

The gangs that recruit the most children are 5 Segond, Brooklyn, Kraze Barye, Grand Ravine and Terre Noire, according to the UN Security Council report.

Usually, new recruits are ordered to buy food and given money to “buy friends” in front of the gangs. Then they participate in clashes and get promoted if they kill someone, for example. After two or three years in the gang, the recruit becomes a member of the entourage if he proves he was not a spy, according to the report.

Recruitment is increasing as many schools remain closed and children become increasingly vulnerable, with gang violence leaving more than 700,000 people homeless in recent years, including about 365,000 minors. Many of them live in makeshift shelters where they fall prey to gangs and face physical and sexual violence.

“In Haiti, criminal groups subject girls and women to horrific sexual abuse,” says a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch.

The report cites a 14-year-old girl in the capital who said she was kidnapped and raped repeatedly by different men over five days in a house with six other girls who were also raped and beaten.

Human Rights Watch noted that while fighting between armed groups has decreased this year, attacks against Haitians, police and critical infrastructure have increased.

“Criminal groups have often used sexual violence to sow fear in rival territories,” he says.

“All is not rosy”

Gangs target children as young as eight, and the longer they spend in an armed group, the harder it is to rescue them and reintegrate them into society, experts say.

Violence is rewarded and encouraged, which Narayan says is extremely detrimental to the child’s psychosocial development.

Children leave gangs in several ways: some leave voluntarily, others escape, and sometimes non-profit organizations find them and take them to centers where they receive medical care if necessary as well as psychological and psychological help. other help.

“There is a transition period,” Narayan said. “Everything is not rosy. This takes time on all sides.