By James Simons--
Prosecutions against Oxfam workers that committed sexual activities with minors in Haiti in 2010 could be very far reaching.
Prosecutors will have to go through plenty of evidence carefully to establish specific allegations of sexual abuse before they can take anything to court and have a good chance of success. The revelation of sexual abuse by senior UK employees of Oxfam is one of the most scandalous revelation to come out in 2018.
A claim by Andrew MacLeod- the former chief of operations of the UN’s Emergency Coordination Centre- that “predatory paedophiles” were now targeting charities in order to “access children” in the developing world has taken everybody by storm.
Mr MacLeod now works for the charity ‘Hear Their Cries’, and has made his position clear that aid workers who engaged in sexual activity with under-age children could be prosecuted in England for breaking international sex tourism laws.
“The impact of sex tourism laws make it unlawful for anybody to have sex with children under the age of 16 anywhere in the world or aid, abet or support that,” Mr MacLeod told the Today programme.
“If they were adults, this man should be charged in front of the courts in Haiti because prostitution is illegal.
THREAT
Oxfam’s chief executive, Paul Goldring, is set to meet Penny Mordaunt later today in a bid to save the serious threat to the charity’s funding after the disturbing revelations of a sex scandal that has undoubtedly scarred the reputation of Oxfam, almost beyond repair.
Meanwhile, Priti Patel, the former Aid Secretary, said that the Oxfam scandal was only “the tip of the iceberg” as she claimed she faced resistance from senior mandarins in the Department for International Development when she had tried to tackle the issue.
In a separate development, Priti Patel, the former Aid Secretary told reporters n the Telegraph that he efforts to address the issue was thwarted when she attempted to raise it a speech at the United Nations.
Writing in The Telegraph,she says that as International Development secretary she had tried to ensure “accountability not just on aid effectiveness, but also the sexual abuse, not just of adults, but also the rape of children”.
Separately it has emerged that more than 120 workers employed by Britain’s leading charities have been accused of sexual abuse in the last year alone.
Statistical figures released in relation to sexual harassment in Britain revealed 87 incidents in 2017, whilst save the children recorded 31, Christian Aid recorded 2cases, and the British Red ross recorded a small number of cases
All four charities receive money from the Department for International Development.
The Government is under growing pressure to clarify how much knowledge it had about the problem.