UN aid agency backed by Angelina Jolie embroiled in sex scandal

The United Nations aid agency backed by Angelina Jolie has been hit by 19 allegations of sex abuse by staff in the past year alone, it can be revealed, with three of the alleged victims being under 18.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which received almost £100 million from British taxpayers in 2017, said misconduct complaints had been made against workers in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

On the eve of a crisis meeting to be held by Department for International Development (DFID) chiefs, this newspaper has also discovered that:

• DFID contractor Adam Smith International has admitted it has had ‘historic cases of sexual misconduct’;
• Human-rights group Amnesty International said it had dealt with three cases of sexual harassment;
• Prince Charles’s young people’s charity, The Prince’s Trust, said three workers had been disciplined for inappropriate behaviour.

Tomorrow, International Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt hosts a ‘safeguarding summit’ with the Charity Commission to work on solutions to the abuse crisis. She has asked charities which receive money from the UK’s £13 billion aid budget to tell her what they have done about historic abuse allegations, and has had 161 responses so far. This newspaper can reveal some of the figures that have been provided by some of the biggest names in overseas aid. UNHCR, whose ‘special envoy’ is Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, said it had one substantiated case of abuse in 2016, for which a member of staff had been dismissed. It had 19 complaints of sexual exploitation or abuse in 2017, of which six are still being assessed. One alleged victim was 17. Details of two other cases involving under-18s are unknown. Ms Jolie declined to comment but a source close to the actress said she will find the allegations ‘upsetting’ and ‘inexcusable’ and has raised the matter with the agency.

Meanwhile, Adam Smith International – which had its government work frozen after The Mail on Sunday revealed alleged ‘dirty tricks’ to win contracts – said it was still preparing its response to DFID’s request for information and a spokesman said it was conducting ‘an internal review to determine the extent and nature of historic cases of sexual misconduct and how they were managed’.

Angelina Jolie poses with children in a refugee camp near the village of Komsomolskiy in North Ossetia, in August 2003 

The Prince’s Trust, which received £14 million in public-sector funding last year, said: ‘Three staff have been disciplined for insensitive or inappropriate behaviour in relation to young people, not constituting sexual abuse.’ One was dismissed.

Amnesty International, which does not receive public funding, said it had had three alleged cases of sexual harassment in the past ten years, resulting in a volunteer being dismissed. All cases were in the UK.

Another DFID contractor, VSO, said last night that staff had made eight allegations of sexual misconduct by employees in the past three years. Six led to staff having their ‘contracts terminated’. All the wrongdoing occurred overseas.