A middle-aged man who persistently hangs around the gates of a British primary school as children are leaving will attract the wary attention of teachers, parents and, pretty soon, the police.
But the same man lurking outside a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, will be quite safe. Especially if he is wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of Unicef, Save the Children, Oxfam or any other internationally-renowed aid organisations.
Almost 20 years ago, the UK’s National Criminal Intelligence Service, warned that due to better policing and safe-guarding strategies and an international crackdown on child sex tourism, predatory paedophiles were turning their attention to the developing world.
And the best way of gaining access to children? Work for a children’s charity in some place where paedophilia is ignored or difficult to police.
Professor Andrew MacLeod, who worked for UN Emergency Co-ordination Centre in Pakistan, said the international aid industry needs to be aware of the scale of sexual abuse happening on their watch
Everyone working in the international aid industry needs to be aware of the scale of sexual abuse – happening on their watch and often involving their personnel – of vulnerable people, especially children.
Those who deny it are either lying through their teeth, or have their heads buried so far in the sand that their ignorance is deliberate.
Now, in the wake of the Oxfam scandal and claims that some aid workers may have had sex with under-age prostitutes in Haiti, the public is at last waking up to this appalling state of affairs.
Shamefully, in aid circles it has been common knowledge for almost 30 years.
I was first alerted to it in 1996 while working in former Yugoslavia with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
People would talk about a nightclub called Florida 2000, in the Bosnian city of Zenica, where girls of 14 and 15 were working as prostitutes.
These children were being trafficked into Bosnia from neighbouring Moldova by individuals working for the UN and Bosnian police. They were used exclusively for the sexual gratification of UN staff.
Dame Barbara Stocking (above), who was Oxfam chief executive at the time, says that it has not been proven that any of the prostitutes paid by its aid workers were underage
Such lurid rumours seemed difficult to credit at first, but when a UN peacekeeper called Kathryn Bolkovac tried to investigate, she was swiftly demoted and then fired. Her story was turned into a film, Whistleblower, in 2010, starring Rachel Weisz.
The grim truth is that it’s very rare for sex abuse by aid workers to attract that sort of attention – partly because, as the film showed, whistleblowers are not tolerated in the aid industry’s ranks.
Mostly, the crimes are more discreet, committed by paedophiles who convince themselves they are doing nothing wrong – or, at least, that they are above the law.
Terrifyingly, these predators are not isolated individuals. There are thousands of them – and that is an assertion based on the most conservative estimates.
I fear that is a massive underestimate. There is so much opportunity for abuse and so little to stop it that jobs in international aid actively attract sexual predators who benefit from the artificial power the aid industry confers upon them. The average annual income in poverty-stricken countries such as Haiti is as low as £300 a year.
Aid workers might be earning £30,000, which is not a fortune in the UK but is beyond imagination to most slum dwellers and disaster survivors.
The paedophiles drive big cars, work under the protection of all-powerful institutions such as Oxfam, the UN etc, and are immensely influential.
UN peacekeeper Kathryn Bolkovac ‘s story was turned into a film, Whistleblower, in 2010, starring Rachel Weisz (above, in the film)
People like them have never been prosecuted for the sex offences they commit. They expect to behave as they want, with impunity, and they do.
All sex with children is rape, because the victims are under the legal age of consent. But that doesn’t mean it usually involves violence or kidnap.
On the contrary – that sort of crime would be far too visible and might risk attracting complaints.
Instead, the sex mostly takes the form of prostitution.
Children, frequently as young as 12 or less, sell their bodies for a few dollars. They give the money to their families and, in many cases, are sent out the next day to do it again.
The paedophile predators are able to persuade themselves that the sex is consensual, and that the children are willing. They even tell themselves that this is a fair financial transaction which benefits everyone.
This is what I believe was going on in Haiti in 2011.
Dame Barbara Stocking, who was Oxfam chief executive at the time, says that it has not been proven that any of the prostitutes paid by its aid workers were underage. True – but it certainly has not been disproved.
In any case, all prostitution in Haiti is illegal, so why didn’t Oxfam report all the allegations to the police immediately?
I’ve been working to draw attention to this endemic sexual corruption for the past nine years. But mention paedophilia at an aid meeting, and everyone starts looking for the door.
In part this is due to the natural revulsion that most people feel at the subject.
Predators know this, of course, and rely on it for protection. They are hidden by the repulsiveness of their crimes.
But the reluctance to face up to this also stems from a desire to protect the very good work done by aid agencies.
A blind eye is turned to abuse, for fear of the consequences if it is exposed.
Perhaps the biggest factor, though, is instinctive disbelief. Aid organisations work on behalf of us all, to alleviate some of the world’s worst suffering, in the wake of earthquakes, famine and other natural disasters. The idea that, through our donations or taxes, we have all been enabling child abuse is unthinkable.
In aid circles, the problem is played down, wrapped in jargon: instead of child rape, people talk about ‘sexual exploitation and abuse’. The mere existence of an acronym – SEA – makes it seem as if the situation is under control.
Even after recent headlines, many in the industry still refuse to talk about it.
Roland van Hauwermeiren (pictured), Oxfam’s county director for Haiti, admitted inviting prostitutes to his £1,500-a-month hilltop villa that was rented for him by Oxfam
I’ve been trying to hold an open discussion on the ‘Fifty Shades Of Aid’ internet forum – a sort of Mumsnet for aid workers. Yesterday, I was banned from the site.
People are scared, even if they are not abusers and predators themselves. Scared of admitting that they heard the rumours and didn’t act.
They are scared of confessing that their industry, which has enjoyed such a reputation for virtue and selflessness, hides so much rottenness.
And they are scared that they will be accused of complicity in the crimes.
British law not only prohibits sex with a child under 16 – it also makes it illegal for anyone to encourage, support or facilitate that behaviour, anywhere in the world – something, perhaps, for Oxfam to consider after its hush-hush internal inquiry into events in Haiti in 2011.
Senior figures in the UN and some of our best known charities have known for decades that this problem was rampant.
They should have put in place systems for training, prevention, protection and prosecution. By failing to do so they were committing an offence.
They were party to child sex crime. They did nothing, and they should face charges.
If they’re not worried – they should be.
Professor Andrew MacLeod was chief of operations of the UN Emergency Co-ordination Centre in Pakistan, and is now visiting professor at King’s College, London, and legal adviser to Hear Their Cries, which campaigns to stop child abuse and rape.