The Oxfam Sex Scandal
< < Go Back
The charity’s workers are accused of exploiting Haitian women.
A sex-abuse scandal at Oxfam, the British-based global charity, is roiling U.K. politics, and the repercussions may ripple around the world. Maybe the scandal will even trigger a long-overdue debate about the limits of foreign aid.
The details suggest an institution whose employees ran amok amid weak oversight. Oxfam staff in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake allegedly hosted parties with local prostitutes, as the Times of London reported Friday. Similar allegations have been made against at least one employee when he worked in Chad.
Dame Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s chief executive from 2001-2013, told the BBC that the Haiti incident isn’t the first time she heard allegations of sexual misconduct. The details are new, but Oxfam noted in its 2017 annual report that it received 87 complaints of sexual exploitation and abuse and fired 22 workers in one year, out of a global staff of some 5,000.
More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):
Rss Feed