gelatik
09.03.02, 00:19
A United Nations investigation into the sex-for-aid scandal heads for Sierra
Leone on Friday after visiting refugee camps in Guinea.
The team from the UN's Refugee Agency, UNHCR, is trying to find out the extent
of the abuse of women and children by aid-workers
A study by the UNHCR and a UK charity made public last month found that some
aid agency employees were exchanging food and other supplies for sex.
The leader of the UNHCR team said on Thursday that those named in the report
would be moved, while in future more women would be hired.
"As far as we're concerned, all those who sexually exploited refugees will be
severely punished and we even envisage prosecutions," said Kamel Morjane,
number three at the UNHCR.
More refugees
He also took a swipe at the international community for cutting aid to African
refugees in recent years.
"When an organisation like ours sees its budget cut by 20%, these kind of
consequences have to be expected," he told journalists in the Guinean capital,
Conakry.
Mr Morjane was speaking after visiting refugee camps in the Kissidougou region,
near the borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia.
While some Sierra Leonean refugees are now returning home after the civil war
there was declared over in January, the UNHCR warns that thousands of refugees
are leaving Liberia.
There has been an upsurge in fighting between government troops and rebels
which has led 10,700 Liberians to flee into southern Sierra Leone.
