UN Report Details Systematic Trafficking of Children by Haitian Gangs

Overview

• A joint OHCHR–UN Integrated Office in Haiti report finds gangs are recruiting, coercing, and exploiting children for criminal activities, sexual violence, and forced labor.
• At least 26 criminal groups operate in and around Port-au-Prince, with an estimated 500,000 children living in areas they control, and UNICEF reports recruitment tripled in 2025 with children comprising 30–50% of ranks.
• Boys are used as lookouts, weapons couriers, extortion collectors, and participants in kidnappings and fighting, while girls as young as 12 face sexual slavery, coerced relationships, domestic servitude, intelligence roles, and in some cases armed tasks.
• UN data record at least 806 children killed or injured and 220 kidnapped between January 2022 and December 2025, reflecting severe threats to children’s safety in gang-dominated neighborhoods.
• The report calls for a seven-pillar strategy covering social protection, safe schools, child-friendly spaces, youth employment, rights-compliant policing, rehabilitation over punishment, and accountability, along with enforcing the UN arms embargo and rights safeguards for the new Gang Suppression Force.