International Aid Workers Tainted By Sexual Misconduct Against Those They Were Assigned To Help

Until a few years ago, even a hint of sexual abuse by international aid workers of the victims of disasters and political persecutions would have been seen as sheer fantasies, or downright slander.

No longer. The first shock came when allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct within prominent NGO's, such as Save the Children and Oxfam, had been voiced. So persistent were the accusations that they led to a report by the House of Commons International Development Committee in the UK to launch a probe in the aid sector.

Its findings are dramatic.

(The) report found sexual abuse and exploitation to be "endemic across the international aid sector" and targeted at both locals and staff members. Abuses ranged from unwanted sexual comments to rape. "The power imbalance is predominantly, although not exclusively, men abusing women and girls," said the report, which warned that the cases that had come to light were likely just the "tip of the iceberg."

According to the chair of the committee, MP Stephen Twigg, "the collective failure over a period of at least 16 years by the aid sector to address sexual exploitation and abuse," is appaling.

The report recounted the sexual exploitation and abuse of girls between the ages of 13 and 18 by United Nations and aid agency staff in refugee camps in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone in 2001. One victim said that "an [aid] worker made me pregnant but now he left me and is loving to another young girl." Victims suffered other problems including abortions and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. The devastating knock-on effects of abuse included a loss of education and skills training, reduced employment opportunities and social exclusion, the report said.

The heart of the matter is that the horrifying information about the abuse of minors, already victimised by calamities, is likely just the tip of the iceberg.