More People are Becoming Homeless Due to Eviction
How would you feel if you were at home enjoying your day and you received an eviction notice
saying that you had to move out within 30 days? More and more people around Port Vila are
going through that exact situation, where they are left to look for new areas to settle down.
Eviction is a process in which a person is expelled from land or a building by legal process.
The essay will agree that "more people are becoming homeless due to eviction, there are also
three reasons to be discussed as to why this essay agrees with this issue."
First and foremost, eviction has become a threatening issue in the lives of many people living
in rural areas around Port Vila. Property leasing is one of the reasons for eviction. It is defined
as a contract that outlines the terms under which one party agrees to rent an asset—in this case,
property owned by another party. According to a news article, the victims of the eviction were
not aware that the land they were living on was leased; they trusted that the information being
provided by the claimed land owner was correct. The landowner himself claimed he had some
documents to prove he was the legal owner. Sometimes the documents giving land rights to
people get mixed up, or there is an error somewhere. Property leasing is one of the reasons why
there are a lot of evictions in areas favoured by Port Vila. On some occasions, there are several
landowners who own a single property, and they may lease the land without discussing it with
the other owners, which would lead to land disputes at the end of the day. People who become
victims are left to fend for themselves, or the government helps to relocate them to a new area.
So, property leasing is one of the reasons why people are evicted and end up homeless.
Second of all, illegal settlers, it’s another reason why people have been evicted as legal settlers.
Simply means people who are living in areas that they do not own or who don't have the right
documents for the land they are living on. In the year 2021, the police relocated more than 500
settlers from black sand areas because of legal settling. Some of the people had been living
there for more than a decade; when the eviction notice came, they had to professionally remove
their makeshift houses and take all their belongings with them. They also cut down the fruit
trees that they had planted. Some of the people who live in those areas know that it is wrong,
but they still live there. Even though that misfortune happened, the government still helped
those people through agencies like the Red Cross to provide food and tarpaulins. So legal
settlement is also another reason why people are being evicted in places around Port Vila.
Finally, fraud, A lot of people, especially in Vanuatu, make the mistake or get tricked into
buying land from fake land owners. Fraud is defined as a person or thing intended to deceive
others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.
People who are interested in buying land should make sure that the claimed owner is not a
fraud before they give their money. Other people claim to be land owners but the land already
belongs to somebody else, people should follow the right process with the department of Lands
or check with the Chiefs about who exactly the land rightfully belongs to, so they make sure
that they don't waste their money or get scammed by those false land owners. If people don't
follow the right process for buying land, they might end up wasting their money and, at the end
of the day, get evicted from the area and become homeless. So, fraud is another reason why
people are becoming victims of eviction.
In conclusion, eviction is worse than any other disaster caused by natural disasters such as
cyclones, the victims permanently lose their homes and have no access to or rights to live again.
Eviction is a crucial matter that the government should look into and solve; if not, more and
more people will lose their homes.
Leonita Navarom (12B)