PARIS - International aid group Medecins
Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said on Wednesday it
had dealt with 24 cases of sexual harassment or abuse among its
40,000 staff last year, and dismissed 19 people as a result.
MSF said it had released the figures to demonstrate
transparency after the scandal at British charity Oxfam, whose
deputy head resigned this week after The Times newspaper
reported some staff working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake
paid for sex with prostitutes.
Britain's development minister has said the government will
discuss with law enforcement possible prosecutions and that
funding of overseas aid agencies will be cut if they fail to
draw lessons from Oxfam's problems.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, which was founded in Paris but is
headquartered in Geneva and has global affiliates, said it was
receiving a rising number of reports of abuse internally.
During 2017, it said 146 complaints were received from the
field. Of those, 40 involved abuse and/or harassment and were
investigated internally.
"Of these 40 cases, 24 were cases of sexual harassment or
abuse," the group said in a statement.
"Two of these were situations of sexual abuse or harassment
by MSF staff against non-MSF staff (patients or members of the
community). In total, out of the 24 cases of sexual harassment
or abuse, 19 people were dismissed."
The statement did not provide details of where the
harassment or abuse took place, who was dismissed and whether
the complaints were also registered with local law enforcement.
MSF is one of the world's largest non-governmental
organisations, with local and international staff working for
long periods in extreme conditions, including war zones and
during natural disasters.
Oxfam, which has around 2,500 staff and 31,000 volunteers
globally, receives around 32 million pounds ($44 million) of
British government funding a year. The European Commission has
said it could cut off its funding for Oxfam, which stands at
around 68 million euros ($84 million) a year.
The scandals are escalating into a broader crisis for
Britain's aid sector by bolstering critics in the ruling
Conservative Party who believe the government should reduce
spending on aid in favour of domestic priorities.