Priti Patel:
The Oxfam prostitution scandal, where aid workers were abusing women and possibly children is atrocious, but only the tip of the iceberg. When secretary of state for international development, it was my mission to ensure that every taxpayer pound was spent to serve those in need, and met UK development objectives. That meant accountability not just on aid effectiveness, but also the sexual abuse, not just of adults, but also the rape of children.
I would like to say I was presented with facts from the department laying out the long history UK governments, Labour and Conservative, had in tackling this global problem. Sadly, I can’t. When I raised this issue in the Department for International Development, it was dismissed as a problem only with UN peacekeepers, which my inquiries found to be incorrect.
I spoke to people who were helping the children raped by aid workers. I found abuse has been occurring across the aid sector for over 20 years and that many senior people in aid simply dismiss this issue with a three-letter acronym – SEA.
SEA is not just Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. These letters were meant to convey the worst of crimes: child rape. The words “child rape” may be confrontational, but if we dilute the problem to three little letters, then we will lose focus on the urgency of this problem.
Child rape is not a Left-right political issue. Child rape is abhorrent and must be stopped. British crime authorities have been warning since 1999 that predatory paedophiles are targeting the aid sector as they can gain access to vulnerable children. The UN Secretary General revealed in his 2016 annual review that there were 145 cases involving 311 victims of “SEA” in the peacekeeping part of the UN alone, in one year. Last year, he revealed the problem was bigger in the civilian side of the UN. This includes UNICEF, WFP, UNHCR and other agencies.
Last September at the General Assembly, I called for best in class systems for training, prevention and detection. I did so to protect vulnerable children from abuse. I called for the heads of agencies of all aid organisations to be accountable for action, and failure of action.
I called for a sexual exploitation and abuse database for the aid sector. Prosecution is critical so I called for procedures to be put in place so evidence is gathered to the correct standard and the accused taken to court. I called on the UN to create a new protocol such that when an accusation is made of child sex against a UK national, an immediate joint investigation be set up to ensure evidence would stand up in a UK court.
Finally I called for the lifting within the UN of legal immunity from anyone working for the UN at whatever level so they could be prosecuted for these crimes. The Government must sanction a zero-tolerance policy. All funding must be subject to the aid sector implementing the highest standards of child protection, investigating all allegations and securing prosecutions of those responsible for these crimes. If they don’t make the grade, they should not get the aid.
Priti Patel is the former international development secretary