WHO aid workers 'forced job seekers into sex'
The World Health Organisation is facing a new wave of sexual misconduct allegations, including rape, by aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The UN agency is at the centre of claims that women were forced to have sex with humanitarian staff when they applied for jobs during an ebola outbreak in the northeast of the country. More than 20 women from the town of Butembo gave accounts of their experiences to journalists from the New Humanitarian news agency and Thomson Reuters Foundation. Last year 51 women from nearby Beni made similar allegations to the reporters of a “jobs for sex” scandal.
The women said their abusers came from a number of NGOs and UN agencies but the name of the WHO was raised most frequently. Many of the women worked as cleaners at ebola treatment centres but said they had been employed only after having sex with men working for aid agencies.
One woman revealed a WhatsApp message from an aid worker which said: “If I give you work, what will you give me in return?” Another woman said she had been raped in a hotel room by a Cameroonian aid worker when she went for what she expected to be an interview for a WHO job.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/who-aid-workers-forced-job-seekers-into-sex-gl9d92mbk
