Refugee children neglected, NGO says

The US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the international community of neglecting Sierra Leonean refugee children living in camps in Guinea. In a report released on 29 July, HRW also said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had failed to ensure the security of the refugees and to prevent or respond to domestic violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation against refugee children. "We're trying to do what we can within our limited resources," Marcellin Hepie, UNHCR Senior Programme Officer for West Africa, told IRIN on Friday. If UNHCR does not receive from the donor community the financing it needs to do its work, he said, the beneficiaries are affected. UNHCR started a project in April to prevent sexual abuse and reduce prostitution to a minimum, according to the minutes of a meeting on 2 July between HRW and UNHCR officials. UNHCR initiatives in the camps also include an income-generating project for women, especially heads of households, whose cost, Hepie said, is around US $50,000. "The more resources, we have the more we can do," Hepie said. See separate item titled 'SIERRA LEONE: HRW Sends out S.O.S. in favour of refugee children'