Crimes against humanity take many shapes. Two of them were in the limelight last week. In Indonesia, 34 Asia-Pacific states met to consider illegal asylum seekers and the people smugglers who seek to spirit them across borders. On the other side of the world, in West Africa, a leaked report revealed that refugee children, who have been gathered in camps in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, had been heartlessly exploited by those to whom they had entrusted themselves.
It is hard to find much sympathy for the smugglers of people around the world, who charge exorbitant sums to spirit refugees across borders. There is an even darker side to their evil trade, which is the suspected murder of thousands of refugees by their guides. Once these unfortunates have handed over their money and been fed into the smuggling pipeline, they disappear from view. Somewhere along their secret route, one of the criminals will simply murder the refugees. This has certainly happened with victims in boats. Refugees have been forced overboard at gunpoint or the boats themselves have been scuttled with the criminals escaping in the only lifeboats. Because of the hidden nature of these things, it is extremely difficult to quantify the size of these crimes.
The betrayal of refugee children in West Africa has, however, been less easy to conceal. Reports complied by leading international charities, including Save the Children, have revealed that their own local workers have been trading charity food for sexual favors from the children in their care. Though the full facts have yet to be revealed, it seems that this monstrous abuse was widespread and organized. There are even suggestions that international elements of UN peacekeeping forces, stationed in the region, have been involved in the exploitation. It would seem that these kids have been let down by just about everybody — the international charities that took on the responsibility of protecting them, the local workers who were paid to feed them, and the foreign troops who were sent to stand guard over them and their community.
In their defense, some of the charities, all of which are based in the wealthy First World, have claimed that the abuse perpetrated by their local employees reflects local culture. This explanation seems almost as despicable as the betrayal of the children. The idea that in any culture, anywhere in the world, it should in any way be acceptable to force sexual favors from a vulnerable child, in return for food and protection, is as horrific as it is patronizing.
The people who run the charities have failed to supervise and monitor situations where the opportunity for abuse was always evident. In their own countries, anyone working with children is now subject to the closest scrutiny. Yet different, markedly lower, standards are applied when dealing with children from a poor Third World country. It must be asked, “why?” It simply will not do to plead inadequate financial resources. Charities, such as Save the Children, which has been the main source of these appalling revelations of abuse, are there to save children, not just from starvation but from the exploitation of their innocence and trust by evil adults.
