Haiti’s escalating gang violence is having a devastating impact on its most vulnerable citizens—children. Armed groups are increasingly recruiting boys and girls, offering them basic survival needs in exchange for their lives and freedom. According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), children are being lured into these violent organizations under the guise of protection and sustenance, but what follows is a life of exploitation that can only be compared to modern slavery.

The situation has reached a crisis point, with gangs gaining control over territories that house millions of Haitians, including 500,000 children. In the midst of political chaos, these criminal groups now operate with near-total impunity. As a result, Haiti’s children are finding themselves forcibly subjected to unimaginable horrors such as sexual exploitation, forced labor, and violence.

Forced recruitment

In Haiti, gangs have replaced the government as the main providers of food, shelter, and safety for many impoverished children.

As reported by Reuters,

Haiti’s powerful gangs have been expanding their influence in recent years while state institutions have been paralyzed by a lack of funds and political crises. Gangs now control territory where 2.7 million people live, including half a million children.

As they have grown, the gangs have ramped up child recruitment, said HRW.

HRW’s report highlights how boys are forced into gangs due to starvation and poverty. These boys are often used as informants, trained to use weapons and ammunition, and deployed in clashes against the police, such as the case of a boy called Michel, an orphan who was recruited at 8 years old and given a loaded rifle.

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