ALBAWABA - The "Village of Love and Peace" NGO was shut down in Lebanon following allegations of trafficking and sexual harassment against children.
According to a Lebanese lawyer, the children's nongovernmental organization was closed on Saturday for presenting an “imminent danger” to Syrian and Lebanese children.
Village of Love and Peace is located in Mount Lebanon and after allegations of serious crimes against children which included trafficking and sexual harassment, a decision to close the NGO was taken, lawyer Diana Assaf claimed.
Assaf posted on Instagram: "Sexual harassment was recorded earlier in the NGO, but what has emerged is the crime of human trafficking."
It maintained: "The director of the NGO deliberately sold a child to a family in return for money and forged hospital documents and other documents, an act that is considered human trafficking in the penal code."
Allegations also indicated that the Village of Love and Peace organization has allegedly sold a child to a family in exchange for money.
Furthermore, according to Judge Joelle Bou Haidar, the director of the Village of Love and Peace Norma Saeed was believed to have "committed the crime of human trafficking by misleading some families into believing that the infants in her care, who were there by court order, could be adopted without resorting to the court by forging their documents with the help of a village headman and one of the hospitals in exchange for monetary payments."
Nevertheless, a report released by the judge also noted that Saeed was also aware that two minor girls were subjected to sexual harassment by a person named Jebran, who forced them and other minors to engage in sexual activity and drug use.
