Three years ago, The International Rescue Committee (IRC), headed by former British Politician, David Miliband, released a survey that states Syrian women are forced to exchange food and transportation for sexual services! According to the report, 40% of those women interviewed said sexual violence took place when they were accessing aid services, provided by the UN, in the southern Syrian cities of Daraa and Quneitra.
The report was presented during a UN agencies meeting that took place in Jordan; as a result, they agreed to make the procedures more strict and observed. Unfortunately, the latest UN report stated that the agencies, responsible of moderating and observing the aids, failed to put a stop to these horrendous activities.
According to BBC and the Telegraph, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) published an assessment of gender-based violence in the region last year and concluded that aid was being exchanged for sex. However, UN agencies and charities said they had zero tolerance of exploitation and were not aware of any cases of abuse by partner organizations in the region.
Thus, even though they received warnings three years ago of the abuses that take place, it still continues to exist. The exploitation is so widespread to the extent that women wouldn’t go to the aid centers anymore; since people will assume they offered their bodies in exchange for the aid when they get back home.
In the report of Voices From Syria 2018: “Examples were given of women or girls marrying officials for a short period of time for ‘sexual services’ in order to receive meals; distributors asking for telephone numbers of women and girls; giving them lifts to their houses ‘to take something in return’ or obtaining distributions ‘in exchange for a visit to her home’ or ‘in exchange for services, such as spending a night with them,”
Andrej Mahecic, A Spokesman for the UNHCR, replied to the allegations stating “It is important to understand that in any aid emergency there is a risk of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation, and to abuse somebody who is in need of assistance is despicable”. He added that the UN refugee agency had no access to the area of Southern Syria, where the abuse was alleged to have taken place, but that the agency did seek to bring local partners to Jordan for training.
According to his statement, even though the 2015 report was incomplete, fragmented, and unsubstantiated; the UN took severe actions to tighten the procedures. He added, “The mere suggestion that the UN can somehow control the situation in a war zone is rather simplistic and disconnected from the reality of what an aid operation looks like in an open and fierce conflict.”