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Aid workers accused of sexually exploiting refugee women, girls

Saturday March 18 2017

A new report has raised a red flag over refugee protection in the country and cites the growing risk of sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking of women and girls in the camps.

According to the Refugee Inter-agency Gender Assessment report 2016 — jointly written by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UN Women and Rwanda’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs — a lack of employment and money was pushing the girls and women to resort to sex in exchange for basic necessities.

Humanitarian workers, refugee leaders and host communities were all accused of being involved in sexual exploitation and abuse of girls, according to the report that was released last week in Kigali. The report adds that many more cases of abuse could be going unreported because of a weak reporting mechanism.

“Weak reporting and lack of confidentiality and preservation of evidence for cases of gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse limit appropriate support for victims and survivors,” the report says.

Rwanda is host to more than 157,975 refugees, mainly from DR Congo and Burundi, who are placed in six camps and transit centres around the country.

The current system for assessing refugee needs was also found to be fuelling early pregnancies. A section of girls and women in the refugee camps were found to be deliberately getting pregnant as a way of increasing the size of their family in order to qualify for more rations or higher stipends.

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According to the report, over 70 per cent of respondents confirmed that sexual exploitation and abuse was happening in the camps with Kigeme camp having the highest incidence rate followed by Kiziba, Nyabiheke, Mahama, Gihembe and Mugombwa.

Zero tolerance

In particular, schools were found to be potential areas for recruiting adolescent girls into sexual exploitation, while girls were sexually abused at school, or on the way to and from school. The report partly blames this on the unprofessional conduct of some of the teaching staff in the camps.

ALSO READ: NGOs raise red flag over abuse of refugee children in camps

The UN refugee agency country representative to Rwanda Azam Saber, and Refugee Affairs Minister Seraphine Mukantabana both said measures were currently in place to protect refugees from falling victim to different forms of abuse along with action being taken against those implicated.

“Zero tolerance is applied as stipulated in the UNHCR rules and the country’s laws, which govern the activities of those working with refugees. In case anyone is implicated, there are heavy penalties,” said Ms Mukantabana.

However, there were no confirmations of any culprits being brought to justice.

The report said an entrenched culture of silence was a major challenge in the lack of justice for victims and survivors of gender-based violence while in other instances victims and survivors as well as their relatives were ignorant of the importance of evidence and its preservation.

Officials also said the low rate of reporting could not entirely be blamed on weak mechanisms as there is still limited knowledge and legal awareness on the side of those supposed to expose abuse.

The report calls for, among other things, a strengthened reporting mechanism for the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse as well as ensuring that cash and food assistance is channelled towards helping adolescent girls and women at risk of engaging in sex in exchange for assistance.

The rapporteurs also suggest conducting research on the status of human trafficking in the camps while also monitoring and pro-actively responding to the situation of girls and women who could fall victim to internal and international trafficking.

Refugees in Rwandan camps had earlier complained about insufficient food aid as a major concern but officials from the Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs Ministry advised them to engage in income-generating activities to enable them to afford supplementary food supplies and other necessities.

An assessment carried out by the World Food Programme last May found that the quantity of aid — food or cash — given to refugees was barely enough for most households to make it to the end of the month, only lasting 23 days in most protracted camps.