OXFAM WORKERS 'COULD FACE UK PROSECUTION' OVER ALLEGED USE OF UNDERAGE PROSTITUTES IN HAITI
'PEOPLE NEED TO GO TO JAIL'.
Andrew MacLeod
warned “predatory paedophiles” used charities to travel to the developing world
and gain access to children, and added “people need to go to jail” for
authorities to tackle the issue.
After it was
revealed Oxfam workers had used prostitutes in Haiti after the devastating
earthquake there, some of whom may have been underage, MacLeod said they could
face criminal charges in Britain, even though the crimes are alleged to have
taken place abroad.
“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,” said MacLeod, the former
chief of operations at the UN’s Emergency Coordination Centre.
“If they are
children, they should be charged in front of the courts here because he’s
broken the sex tourism laws. If they are uncertain, they should pass the
dossier to the police for investigation.”
MacLeod said police
have been warning since 1999 “that predatory paedophiles, as we cracked down in
the developed world, are now going to the developing world to get access to
children”.
He added: “Their
chosen methodology is through charity. If we are going to wipe out this problem
that’s been known about for 30 years, people need to go to jail.”
The Criminal Justice
and Immigration Act 2008 means Britons can be prosecuted for sexual offences
committed abroad.
MacLeod’s comments
come as Oxfam is due to meet Government on Monday to deal with the fall-out.
International
Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt will meet the charity, after warning the
“scandal” had put its relationship with the Government at risk.
Mordaunt said on
Sunday that the charity had lied and failed in its “moral leadership” by
failing to fully disclose details of its investigation into the misconduct to
relevant authorities.
“I am affording them
the opportunity to tell me in person what they did after these events and I’m
going to be looking to see if they are displaying the moral leadership that I
think they need to now,” she told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.
“If the moral
leadership at the top of the organisation is not there then we cannot have you
as a partner.”
Charities, including
Oxfam, have been told they will have funding withdrawn if they fail to comply
with authorities over safeguarding issues.
Charity Commission
director of investigations Michelle Russell told BBC Radio Four’s Today
programme: “We’ve made very clear that had the details of what has come out
over the last few days been told to us, we would have dealt with this very
differently.
“The charity sector
is not immune from these sorts of allegations and incidents happening. We have
about 1,000 incidents a year reported to us by charities involving safeguarding
issues.
“What is really
important – and perhaps this hasn’t happened in the past so much – is that
there is a light of transparency and accountability on it.”
Mordaunt said Oxfam
had also “categorically” stated to the DfID that beneficiaries were not
involved in the misconduct and no harm was done.
Four members of
Oxfam staff were dismissed and three, including the country director, resigned
before the end of the 2011 investigation.
The charity said
allegations that under-age girls may have been involved were not proven.
Ahead of its
meeting, Oxfam announced a package of measures to improve safeguarding,
including improved recruitment and vetting, a new whistleblowing helpline and a
recommitment to report concerns to authorities.
Caroline Thomson,
Oxfam’s chairwoman of trustees in the UK, said: “It is not sufficient to be
appalled by the behavior of our former staff – we must and will learn from it
and use it as a spur to improvement.”
She added that
concerns raised about the recruitment and vetting of staff involved in the
scandal were being examined.
Source: HuffPost
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