Millions Starve as Food Rots at Haiti's Ports

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March 2008:New stiff customs rules for shipments are holding up aid. CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti -- While millions of Haitians go hungry, containers full of food are stacking up in the nation's ports because of government red tape -- leaving tons of beans, rice and other staples to rot under a sweltering sun or be devoured by vermin.

A government attempt to clean up a corrupt port system that has helped make Haiti a major conduit for Colombian cocaine has added new layers of bureaucracy -- and led to backlogs so severe they are being felt 600 miles away in Miami, where cargo shipments to Haiti are almost at a standstill.

The problems are depriving desperate people of donated food. Some are so poor they are forced to eat cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable oil to satisfy their hunger.

An Associated Press investigation found the situation is most severe in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city. One recent afternoon, garbage men shoveled a pile of rotting pinto beans that had turned gray and crumbled to dust as cockroaches and beetles scurried about.

The men had found the putrid cargo by following a stench through stacked shipping containers to one holding 40,000 pounds of beans.

It had been in the port since November.

"So many times, by the time" the food "gets out of customs, it's expired and we're forced to burn it," said Susie Scott Krabacher, whose Colorado-based Mercy and Sharing Foundation has worked in Haiti for 14 years.

"The food is there.

It is available.

It just can't get to the people."

It is unclear how much of Haiti's food supply is tied up in the port delays, but the effects could be serious.

Haiti imports about 75% of its food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

And there is little room for error in a country where the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that almost half the population was undernourished in 2002.

The UN World Food Program and large-scale U.S. rice growers said they have been able to get their food into Haiti by hiring local agents to handle bureaucratic procedures.

But smaller charities, merchants and private citizens often have been forced by the delays to throw away containers of food or pay exorbitant fees.

The problems stem in part from the efforts to clean up a port system the World Bank recently ranked as the second-worst in the region, ahead of only Guyana.

Reform efforts

Before the changes were implemented last fall, bribes flowed freely and goods passed through unsearched and without duties being paid. That deprived the government of money and helped make Haiti a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine destined for the United States.

The international community has encouraged Haiti's customs reform efforts, with the U.S. government helping fund port security and UN peacekeepers stepping up antismuggling patrols along the coast and Dominican border.

But new requirements for licenses and manifests in triplicate have overwhelmed poorly trained workers and the country's handwritten customs system.

Unlike U.S. ports, where fewer than 5% of containers were scanned last year and only a fraction of those opened up and inspected, Haitian cargo handlers said each container at Cap-Haitien now must be completely emptied and inspected.

Customs chief Jean-Jacques Valentin said that policy was Haiti's decision.

New procedures

Frustrated by the new procedures and demanding higher pay, striking workers shut down the port at Cap-Haitien for 20 days in December.

Graffiti denouncing the port's director still mars its buildings.

And despite the reforms, some say the bribes continue.

Jean-Paul Michaud of Canada said he sailed to the capital of Port-au-Prince late last year carrying 60 pounds of donated clothing and medicine -- and that port authorities demanded $10,000 in "customs fees" -- code for a bribe to make the fees disappear.

"I'd have rather thrown the aid in the water," Michaud said. The Canadian Embassy intervened and the fee was waived.

Krabacher's group said it has paid nearly $16,000 in fees in the first six weeks of 2008 alone, compared with $23,418 for all of 2007.

Lawmakers concerned about the situation questioned Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis about the port delays during a February no-confidence vote.

"There is a lot of work being done in terms of the ports," Alexis maintained.

"We are looking at a way to implement a fast-track policy, so people can get their merchandise out more quickly."

He also recommended splitting the National Port Authority into two agencies, one focusing on the logistics of port management and the other overseeing customs because he does not believe the current agency can handle both tasks.

Claude, March 31 2008, 3:20 PM

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