Since 1492, when Christopher Columbus left 39 sailors with infectious diseases on the island after the ship ran aground, Haiti has been ravaged by disasters, both natural and man-made.

Now, once again, the island nation in the Caribbean Sea is the subject of outright abuse.

News broke last week that not one, but three, senior aid workers for Oxfam, an international confederation of charitable organisations, had been accused of paying young Haitian girls for sex in the wake of the devastating January 2010 earthquake, reports VICE:

The aid workers were part of a huge international relief effort following the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, which killed 220,000 people and left more than 1.5 million destitute.

For a leading charity focused on the alleviation of global poverty, hiring sex workers sure is one way to prove that true motives are often a little misguided.

There was an apparent internal investigation in 2011, but Oxfam never released details of what happened subsequently. However:

An investigation by the Times revealed three senior aid workers for Oxfam were “permitted” to resign and four others were fired for gross misconduct in relation to sexual exploitation, downloading of pornography, bullying and intimidation on the Caribbean island in the months after the tragedy.

Following Oxfam’s investigation, the charity’s country director in Haiti, Roland van Hauwermeiren [above] from Belgium, admitted bringing prostitutes to a villa rented for him and using some of the $415 million the charity receives from the U.K. government and donations each year for his sexpeditions:

Controversially, Oxfam agreed to give Van Hauwermeiren and two other senior officials “a phased and dignified exit,” because firing them would have had “potentially serious implications” for the charity.

And everything is going to be okay now? Haha. Hilarious. It has been reported the charity could lose more than $50 million in funding this year.

The company said Van Hauwermeiren was “permitted to resign on the basis that he fully cooperated with and supported the investigation.”

Although nothing happened following the initial reports, the leading UK charity is denying that it took part in a cover-up:

In an emailed statement, Oxfam told VICE News that it “treats any allegations of misconduct extremely seriously. As soon as we became aware of the allegations in Haiti in 2011 we launched an internal investigation.”

A spokesperson for the charity previously denied they tried to obscure the facts. “This was not a cover-up,” a spokesperson told the Telegraph.

Oxfam said it informed the Charity Commission about the probe, but the commission said it never received the final report and at no time was it given “any indication of potential sexual crimes involving minors.”

The accusations are horrendous: the report alleges that some of the prostitutes were underage, and sources familiar with the case told the Times that aid workers had “invited ‘groups of young prostitutes’ to their guesthouse and held sex parties”:

One source described seeing video footage from a party that was “like a full-on Caligula orgy,” with girls wearing Oxfam T-shirts.

Eish – but the saga continues.

Oxfam told VICE that the “allegations about underage sex were never proven”. Sure, but…

Despite the findings of the investigation, and the fact prostitution is illegal in Haiti, Oxfam did not inform local authorities because, after taking legal advice, the charity felt it was “extremely unlikely that reporting these incidents to the police would lead to any action being taken,” an Oxfam spokesperson said.

Talk about an absolute failure in moral leadership.

[source:vice]