Haiti’s children are being forcibly recruited into violent gangs

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.

Girls trapped in domestic and sexual exploitation

The situation is equally harrowing for girls with many kidnapped or coerced into joining these gangs, only to be sexually abused and forced into domestic servitude. They are made to cook, clean, and care for gang members, living under the constant threat of rape and violence. Girls who become pregnant are often discarded, left to fend for themselves in an already hostile environment.

Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, voiced her concerns over the ongoing impunity in Haiti, stating,

“We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for gangs: from running deliveries to gathering information and performing domestic tasks under threats of violence. Additionally, girls have been subjected to rape and sexual violence. The desperation of their situation is truly disturbing; many have been displaced or have nowhere to go.”

“The need for resources is urgent”

Despite the UN approving a security mission to help Haiti’s police fight the gangs, progress has been slow. HRW has called for greater resources to support Haiti’s government in tackling these criminal organizations, ensuring children have access to food, education, and rehabilitation.

Piquer states,

“The need for resources to comprehensively protect children’s rights and prevent further abuses and violations is urgent, as is ending the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators.”

This recruitment is not just a tragic outcome of poverty but also a systematic violation of human rights, constituting forms of modern slavery under international law. The use of children for combat, forced labor, and sexual exploitation mirrors the core practices of modern slavery, where individuals are controlled and exploited for the benefit of others, often through coercion or the threat of violence.

Without urgent action, an entire generation of Haitian children could be lost to this brutal cycle of violence and exploitation.