UN says kids sexually abused in West Africa refugee camps
Published in the New York Times
February 28, 2002
The UN agency and Save the Children UK jointly surveyed camps in the Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where abuses of children are “extensive,” the two organizations said in a report.
The preliminary report was based in a 40-day mission in October and November and adults to take testimony from 1,500 children and adults in the region, where tens of thousands of people have been displaced by civil wars. The organizations released findings ahead of schedule to sound an alarm and call for help.
Children told the organizations that they thought giving in to sexual demands was “the only option they had in order to receive food and other education,” the report said. In some cases, it added, “it was reported that parents encouraged their daughters to engage in such activities to bring an income into the family.”
Most of the abused children are girls aged 13 to 18, the organizations found. Young boys are also exploited, either to gain access to girls or their mothers, but there were no reports of homosexual activity, possibly because of taboos on talking about that subject. Children living in camps without their parents were the most vulnerable, the survey found.
The men demanding sex from children, according to the report over the
distribution of relief goods.
They included locally hired staff member, representatives of local nongovernmental organizations and sometimes peacekeepers.
“It’s difficult to escape the trap of those people; they use the food as bait to get you to sex with them,” an adult in Liberia told the survey team. A Guinean agency worker in camps faced the same harassment.
Save the Children and the refugee agency called for an urgent international review and action by aid agencies, including the introduction and enforcement of codes of conduct among workers in the camps.
By BARBARA
CROSSETTE
The New York Times
