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Survey reveals widespread abuse of children in West African refugee camps
2002-058-7
3/6/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
A preliminary study by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the British branch of Save the Children has revealed widespread child abuse and sexual exploitation at refugee camps run by the United Nations in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. A team from the two agencies interviewed more than 1,500 children and adults and documented charges against 67 people from more than 40 agencies, most of them national and foreign relief agencies operating in the region. The suspects were primarily local male employees hired to distribute aid.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he was “shocked and disturbed” by the reports and promised further investigation and swift action. “In all three countries workers reportedly used the very humanitarian aid and services intended to benefit the refugee population as a tool of exploitation,” said the UN report.
“A whole range of people in a position of authority and trust were abusing these positions, all in return for sexual favors,” said Paul Nolan, child protection manager for Save the Children. “The kids are in a desperate situation. In order to survive they have to make the choice between going without food or selling themselves, the only currency they have left to them,” he said.
A background analysis by the US Committee for Refugees points out that there are an estimated 1.1 million people in the three countries still living in refugee camps and displacement sites after 12 years of war spilling across the international borders. Many refugee programs in the region are mismanaged, disorganized, poorly staffed and accommodate corruption by local officials and some aid workers, according the analysis. “At the peak of the refugee crisis in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, UNHCR deployed fewer than 10 protection officers to monitor 700,000 refugees and returnees,” the report said.
Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) said that “children are inherently vulnerable and made more so by protracted stays in understaffed and poorly supported refugee camps.” He noted that the camps in West Africa are in remote parts of the host countries and that such isolation adds to the vulnerability of refugees generally and women and children particularly.
Parkins hoped that the UN and other relief agencies would act with “a great sense of urgency,” but he also argued that the situation wouldn’t improve until “the practice of containing thousands of refugees in camps for years without any prospect of a new life ends.”
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