The Sea Voyager, one of two luxury cruise ships where hundreds of UN staff have been lodging while working in Haiti, will be leaving on May 11, a UN official said Tuesday.

The UN workers staying aboard will be moving into tents at Camp Charlie, said Anne Poulsen, spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Program (WFP).

The camp, located next to the Port-au-Prince airport, has room for some 300 UN employees, Poulsen said.

"We are in the process of emptying the ship to go to Camp Charlie," Poulsen said.

In the chaotic days after Haiti's devastating January 12 earthquake, which killed up to 300,000 people, UN officials chose to house their personnel in cruise ships.

The UN has 108 staff members currently living aboard the 1,200-tonne, 175-foot Sea Voyager.

A second luxury cruise ship, the 11,000-tonne, 140-meter (460-foot) long Ola Esmeralda, has been chartered by the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

The quake destroyed so many buildings and hotels that rental space for foreign workers is expensive and hard to find.

The World Bank had its personnel living in the Indigo tourist complex, some two hours by road north of the Haitian capital.

"We will soon move to a space in town that we were recently able to locate," World Bank spokesman Alejandro Cedeno told AFP.

"It is extremely difficult to find office space or accommodations in Port-au-Prince currently. Our office in Port-au-Prince was severely damaged by the quake and most of our staff … lost their homes."

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