May 23, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 87 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H4151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SECURING RESTROOMS IN REFUGEE CAMPS

  (Ms. MENG asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. MENG. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in gratitude that my bill, H.R. 
615, the Refugee Sanitation Facility Safety Act, unanimously passed the 
House. I thank my colleagues for their support.
  I am especially grateful to Chairman Engel and Ranking Member McCaul 
for their leadership and support of this critical bill to ensure the 
protection of women and girls.
  While refugee camps are intended to serve as a temporary refuge from 
war, refugees often find that they have been followed by the very 
violence rise and insecurity that caused them to flee their home 
countries in the first place. Women and girls, in particular, face high 
levels of sexual assaults, and the infrastructure of camps fail to 
protect against these already-vulnerable populations.
  Refugee camps around the world don't provide safe and secure access 
to sanitary facilities, and those that exist are often mixed sex, 
public, and without locks or well-lit paths.
  Many women and girls so fear using the bathroom at night that they 
develop urinary tract infections, are forced to relieve themselves in 
their tents, or are unable to change their clothes for weeks.
  Refugee camps have failed to provide commonsense solutions to protect 
refugees from sexual assault in sanitation facilities. This legislation 
aims to fix that by requiring U.S. refugee funding to prioritize 
securing restrooms in refugee camps.
  I now urge the Senate to take up this commonsense, but critical 
legislation.

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