Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Chad to tighten charity controls

Chad is to review the credentials of all aid agencies operating following an alleged child-trafficking scandal.

Six French aid workers remain in custody in N'Djamena awaiting trial after they tried to fly out 103 children for adoption in Europe.

Many of the children were neither orphans, nor from Darfur as claimed by the Zoe's Ark charity.

Foreign Minister Ahmad Allam-Mi said preliminary checks would be conducted on all aid agencies.

He told the BBC that Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with whom Chad has long-standing partnerships, such as United Nations agencies and the Red Cross, would not be affected.

However "humanitarian NGOs which come to provide emergency aid to the east of the country" will now be screened "to determine their nationality, capacity, loyalty and honesty" he said.

According to the AFP news agency, between 150 and 200 aid agencies are working in Chad.

"We will take a census to know who is here legitimately and to ask those who are not to put their papers in order," Mr Allam-Mi told AFP.

There are some 240,000 refugees from neighbouring Darfur inside Chad along with 180,000 displaced Chadians, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

No comments: