37 Cases of Child Sex Abuse Involving Staff Reported at Austria-Based Charity in 2016

A child waits at the gates of the SOS Children's Village in Croix des Bouquets, outside of
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

The children’s charity SOS Children’s Villages has admitted that it received 37 reports of the sexual abuse of children involving charity personnel in 2016.

The charity, based in Vienna, Austria, admitted the reports in the wake of the sex scandal involving the international charity Oxfam which was also accused of child sex abuse in South Sudan earlier this week.

The press officer for SOS Children’s Villages Cecilia Bergling Naucler said that while they did receive 37 reports of sex abuse, they did not want to identify those accused for “privacy reasons”, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.

According to Ms. Naucler, the victims were “either children or young adults”. She added: “Due to confidentiality legislation and consideration for children and young people in our activities, we can not comment on individual cases or an exact number.”

The charity, Naucler said, tends to hire locals wherever it operates and the charity told the Swedish broadcaster: “In case of suspicion of serious abuse, notification is made to the police and judicial authorities, in accordance with the country’s current legislation.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has also been revealed to have had staff who were found to have engaged in sexual abuse. The charity, which engages in various work from medical assistance to rescuing migrants off the Libyan coast, said they had fired 19 workers last year due to sex abuse allegations.

MSF released a statement this week saying that last year it received a total of 146 complaints, 40 of which were abuse related and 24 of those were sexual in nature.

Breitbart London has reported in the past on charity workers engaging in sexual relationships with migrants in Calais and being accused of sexual exploitation.

Last year, the pro-migrant charity Mercy Corps, which receives funding from left-wing billionaire George Soros, was also accused of acts of sex abuse by Greek authorities.

 Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com 

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