Haiti’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Bocchit Edmond, said that the Haitian government has asked its British counterpart to identify the aid workers who paid for sex with minors in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, calling for them to be prosecuted “ in the international system”, as it continues to consider taking its own legal action against the charity.
The Haitian ambassador to the UK said that his country was “shocked and appalled “ by the way the benevolent organization allowed all those involved in these serious crimes to leave the country without reporting them to Haitian authorities.
‘For the Executive, to know these crimes were committed and to allow those people to leave without informing the authorities is wrong.” the diplomat told the British news paper, the Guardian. “We might be dealing with a pedophile ring. Prostitution is illegal and we believe they may have been underage kids.”
The Chief Executive of the charitable group at the time Dame Barbara Stocking, said that the organization did not inform Haitian authorities because they didn’t believe that they would have done anything; while the current Chief Executive last Sunday said that charity did not inform Haitian Police because it feared this would endanger the women involved.
But Edmond described this as “wrong and really insulting”. “How do they know the women would have been endangered?” he said. “Oxfam should recognize they failed and showed a lack of leadership.”