The UK has launched a pioneering global sex offender register aimed at rooting out sexual predators working in the aid sector.
The five-year project, which will be kickstarted with £2m of UK aid, will operate from two hubs in Africa and Asia, and harness Interpol’s green-notice system, which issues international alerts over those “considered to be a threat to public safety”.
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The first year will focus on testing an online platform and will also provide a secure online profile to upload concerns about employees - who could be hit with travel restrictions if placed under investigation.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said the register was part of a “concerted global effort” to tackle the issue, which made headlines earlier this year after a scandal about sexual predators working for Oxfam and Save the Children led MPs to conclude abuse in the aid sector had reached “epidemic” levels.
It comes as a new report from the Charity Commission found that there was “significant and systemic” under-reporting of abuse by charities working in the UK and abroad.
Speaking to The Times, Mordaunt said “the most shocking thing [about the Oxfam scandal] was the inadequacy of that organisation’s response”.
“The attitude and the culture set by the leaders of that organisation at the time demanded a big response and that response had to be wider than one organisation because this is a global problem,” she said.
The programme will “raise awareness, toughen criminal record checks across the sector internationally, and improve information-sharing between law enforcement agencies”, says The Independent. DFID hopes it will stop abuse by preventing high-risk suspects from being hired and increasing the chances of them being arrested.