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The United Nations and aid charities were today hit with a “sex for grain” storm over alleged abuse of women and girls in southern Syria.

They faced claims that local men delivering aid on their behalf to desperately hungry families in the wartorn country were demanding sex for food.

Widows and divorcees were seen as particularly vulnerable to this shocking exploitation.

The alleged abuse is said to have started years ago but still to be continuing despite warnings that it was happening.

One air worker, Danielle Spencer, claimed that a blind eye was being turned to sexual exploitation in order to carry on delivering aid to communities suffering in the Syrian civil war.

She told the BBC: “Sexual exploitation and abuse of women and girls has been ignored, it’s been known about and ignored for seven years.”

She claimed: “Somewhere there has been a decision made that it is OK for women’s bodies to continue to be used, abused, violated in order for aid to be delivered for a larger group of people.”

Abuses were outlined in a recent report on gender-based violence, called Voices from Syria 2018, by the United Nations Population Fund.

“In focus groups discussions from various governorates in Syria, 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’.

“Women and girls ‘without male protectors’, such a widows and divorcees as well as female IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons), were regarded as particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation.”

Women and girls often refused to go to distribution centres without a male “chaperone” and others would not go because it would have been assumed that they had offered sex to get food.

“Some women have given up receiving aid because of the provocative treatment they receive from distributors,” it added.

Reports of sexual exploitation in Syria were reportedly discussed at a meeting of UN agencies and aid organisation at a meeting in the Jordanian capital Amman in July 2015, following which some procedures are said to have been tightened but victims still left unable to properly raise cases.

The Department for International Development said it was not aware of any cases of this type of sexual abuse involving British aid.

“There are mechanisms already in place to raise issues of abuse and exploitation,” the department said.

“DfID partners in Syria use third party monitors to verify UK aid distributed in Syria.”

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson stressed: “Penny Mordaunt (the International Development Secretary) and I are absolutely committed to a zero tolerance approach.

“We won’t support agencies that engage in that kind of activities.”

The allegations follow the Haiti prostitution scandal which has engulfed Oxfam and claims of sexual misconduct at other aid charities.