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5/29/18, "UN knew years ago about refugee sex-for-food scandal, leaked report reveals," NY Post, Lia Eustachewich
"Workers from more than 40 charity organizations exploited refugee children and women in West Africa by trading food for sex, according to a leaked report — that the United Nations has known about for 16 years.
The disturbing scandal is laid out in an 84-page report produced in 2001 by researchers for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Save the Children working at refugee camps in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The report was handed over to the UNHCR in 2002 but only a summary of the allegations was published.
Identified in it are 40 organizations “whose workers are alleged to be in sexually exploitative relationships with refugee children,” according to The Times in the UK, which obtained a copy of the full report.
Aid workers were “among the prime sexual exploiters of refugee children, often using the very humanitarian assistance and services intended to benefit refugees as a tool of exploitation.”
They allegedly traded basic needs — like food, oil, access to education and plastic sheeting for shelters — for sex.
Women at a camp in Guinea told the researchers, “In this community, no one can get corn soya blend without having sex first. They say, ‘A kilo for sex,’” the Sun reported.
“These NGO workers are clever, they use the ration as bait to get you to have sex with them,” a teenage girl in Liberia added.
Some families felt compelled to offer their young daughters as a way to “make ends meet,” the report found.
Many of the organizations implicated were small and local but 15 were international, including UNHCR, the World Food Programme, Save the Children and Merlin.
Also named were Medecins Sans Frontieres, Care International, the International Rescue Committee, the International Federation of Red Cross Societies and the Norwegian Refugee Council."...
[Ed. note: The "International Rescue Committee" has been under investigation for alleged bid-rigging and bribery. The group is heavily funded by the US government.]
(continuing): "The researchers said some of the allegations in the report couldn’t be fully verified and needed further investigation.
But they noted, “The number of allegations documented, however, is a critical indicator of the scale of the problem.”
Allegations leveled against 67 people were provided to senior UNHCR officials in “confidential lists” but fewer than 10 were dismissed and none were prosecuted, The Times said.
The UNHCR notified all of the charities about the allegations and sent UN investigators who identified 43 separate cases in west Africa.
The UN said it had implemented “specific preventative and remedial actions.”
In a 2005 interview, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers downplayed the report.
“We have to find concrete evidence,” he said at the time. “It’s very scarce. So the idea of widespread sexual exploitation by humanitarian workers, I think it’s simply not a reality.”
Christine Lipohar, a Save the Children official who co-authored the report, was “frustrated and annoyed” at Lubbers’ response.
“Good systems for preventing and responding were developed on paper, but have not been effectively and consistently rolled out in all locations; so implementation . . . is often reliant on individuals committed to the issue,” she said.
The UNHCR said it had a “a zero-tolerance policy, which means that every possible report or allegation of sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment by UNHCR or partner personnel is thoroughly assessed and if substantiated leads to sanctions, including summary dismissal.”"
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Added: UN personnel are totally immune from criminal prosecution, for example can put all US taxpayer dollars in a personal bank account without consequence:
4/16/2009, "Report: U.N. spent U.S. funds on shoddy projects," USA Today, Ken Dilanian
"Federal prosecutors in New York City were forced to drop criminal and civil cases because the U.N. officials have immunity....
Do UN "agencies have immunity "if they siphon (their U.S. grants) all off into Swiss banks? Is that accurate?
They will be totally immune, no matter what they do with the money?" "My understanding is, yes," Gambatesa replied." (item near end)
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Added: International Rescue Committee is known for skillfully defrauding refugees:
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May 11, 2016, "David Miliband's refugee aid group in corruption probe," UK Telegraph, Louisa Loveluck, Istanbul
"The United States is investigating an international aid group headed by David Miliband over allegations of corruption in projects intended to help Syrian civilians and refugees.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one of three international groups to have had millions of pounds in funding withdrawn over alleged bid-rigging and bribery.
Mr Miliband, a former foreign secretary, was appointed president and chief executive of the organisation in 2013, following his exit from Westminster politics.
USAID's Office of the Inspector General confirmed on Friday that 14 entities and individuals had been suspended as part of a "complex investigation into cross-border aid programs".
This includes International Medical Corps, one of the largest providers of medical aid to Syrians, and GOAL, an Irish NGO.
Allegations relate to the organisations systematically overpaying for goods in Turkey. A senior USAID official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said private Turkish companies had sold cut-rate blankets and other basic materials at vastly inflated prices and pocketed the difference.
The items are meant to ensure the survival of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians, many of whom have been left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
"What became clear in the course of this investigation was this was a pretty sophisticated operation," the USAID official said.
The IRC, which has an annual budget of £350 million, relies heavily on government funding from Britain and the United States.
An IRC spokesman told The Times: "We are fully engaged and working with USAID on this issue.”
Two IRC staff members were dismissed in January after it was found that they had accepted money from suppliers in return for awarding them contracts.
The Telegraph understands that International Medical Corps has suspended one of its most senior officials working on the cross-border aid operation. GOAL has also replaced a locally staffed logistics team in Turkey and is currently barred from using its €6.2m of US grant money to procure food and non-food items."...
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Added: Miliband's group International Rescue Committee is one of nine biggest winners of US taxpayer cash in the lucrative refugee resettlement racket as of June 2017: From Refugee Resettlement Watch:
"These are the nine major US resettlement contractors and working under them (using your tax dollars) are hundreds of local subcontractors.
- Church World Service (CWS)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
- World Relief Corporation (WR)"
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