Open Border NGOs face fresh child abuse allegations

An International Development Committee investigation has revealed how children were abused by men at peacekeeping camps run by the NGO.

Corinna Csáky, a child development consultant investigated allegations of child abuse by “humanitarians” and peacekeepers in 2008 for Save the Children. A young girl in Haiti explained how “the people who are raping us and the people in the office are the same people,” she said.

The majority of abuse goes unreported because victims are “scared of retaliation,” Csáky said. Both local and international aid workers were involved in the sexual exploitation of children.

Despite numerous appeals, the NGO failed to investigate claims of sexual misconduct by staff including former chief executive Justin Forsyth and former policy director Brendan Cox — widow of the late Jo Cox.

MPs investigating found perpetrators preying on the most vulnerable, with victims often existing “outside the system” — those children most in need since they were not on any register for schooling, humanitarian aid nor other services.

Italian television programme Matrix reported how staff from Save the Children were cooperating with people traffickers.The television programme, hosted on Italian network Canale 5, released footage of how people smugglers helped migrants get to a ship chartered by Save the Children, the Vos Hestia, off the coast of Libya.

Last year, the George Soros-funded charity Mercy Corps, was accused of sex abuse by Greek authorities.

Sex abuse and misconduct were also reported at the Austria-based children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages and French Doctors Without Borders in the wake of the Oxfam abuse scandal. British charity Oxfam was reeling on Tuesday after fresh claims of sexual assault and rape, this time concerning their aid workers in South Sudan.

A survey of 120 Oxfam staff across three countries found that at least 14 percent said they had witnessed or experienced sexual assault.

In February this year, the UK’s Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into Oxfam because it did not “fully and frankly disclosed” all details about allegations in Haiti. The charity’s deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, resigned, saying she was “desperately sorry”.

The European commission, which provided almost as much funding as the UK government last year, said: “We are ready to review and if needed cease funding any partner who is not living up to the required high ethical standards.”

Their UK government funding bids have been suspended as a result of the controversy. Oxfam announced that it expects income this year to decrease by more than £67 million.

Victims from Haiti, South Sudan and the Ivory Coast were questioned, with one father remarking that aid workers who abused children “did not even hide what they are doing”.

While celebrated for their “good deeds” done to others, NGO professionals instead seem to be more interested in doing “good” for themselves. They move between NGOs, academia and political appointments, while enjoying a culture of impunity while they exercise power over the poorest. The Lancet once described NGOs in Haiti as “polluted by unsavoury characteristics”.

Charities thrive on the poor, not on ending poverty.