Aid sector 'almost complicit' in sex scandal, say MPs

The aid sector is guilty of "complacency verging on complicity" over an "endemic" sex abuse scandal, a damning report from MPs has said.

International Development Committee chairman Stephen Twigg said charities were "more concerned to protect their own reputation" rather than victims.

In February the Times revealed senior staff at Oxfam had paid survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti for sex.

Charities welcomed the report, and Oxfam said it has "further to go".

The MPs' report said "so much more" could have been done to tackle the "open secret" of people working in the aid sector committing such acts.

But despite the charities knowing about the problem, the committee said there had been a "collective failure of leadership", and action only when there was a crisis.

The committee said this "episodic" response had been "reactive, patchy and sluggish", and meant safeguarding policies were created but never effectively implemented.

The report also said leaders were "self-deluded" in thinking they had addressed problems before they became public.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45013078

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Time to shut down these big charities that pay their bosses massive salaries and act like this.

None of our foreign aid budget to should be given to them.