Haiti is one of the FCDO's full do-not-travel destinations. The advice is unambiguous: it advises against all travel to Haiti due to the volatile security situation, and there are no British consular officials in the country — assistance is run from the Dominican Republic and cannot be delivered in person.
The scale is the story. Open-source reporting from the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect indicates only around 10 percent of Port-au-Prince remains under government control, with armed groups holding the rest and pushing into previously stable areas. More than 8,100 people were reported killed between January and November 2025. Close to 1.5 million people are internally displaced and 6.4 million — over half the population — need humanitarian assistance.
The UN-backed Gang Suppression Force, authorised in September 2025 to replace the earlier support mission, was expected to begin deploying around April 2026 with pledges from 18 countries. It is not yet at its mandated strength, and there is no quick fix in view.
Operator implication: this is a non-permissive environment. Kidnap-for-ransom and gang control of ground routes — including the approaches to the main airport — make independent movement untenable. Any unavoidable task requires specialist providers, armoured movement, vetted local networks and air options, with the working assumption that state security and British consular support will not be there in a crisis. For most clients, the correct answer is to not go.
