Sexual exploitation at Zaatari is so widespread that a number of camp inhabitants are operating informal monitoring groups and have caught out several "marriage brokers" who infiltrated the camp posing as workers. These individuals are merely escorted off the camp if reported. 

Indeed, a number of UN officials and aid workers I met at Zaatari and in other camps and settlements in Jordan and Lebanon tell me it is known that prostitution and trafficking of women, both at the border and within the camp exist, but to date no formal investigation has been commissioned into these criminal activities. 

At Zaatari crowds of desperate women and men queue for water and basic provisions, others sit on the ground staring into space. I ask Andrew Harper, chief of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Jordan, if there is concrete evidence of women and girls being sold at the borders and in the camp. "Many of the families are experiencing dire poverty," says Harper, "so it would be no surprise if it is happening." What is surprising is that no proper investigation into the matter has yet been carried out at Zaatari, despite local reports and official suspicion.

Women at Zaatari complain that men regularly enter the communal kitchens specifically to sexually harass lone women. Some are too afraid to use the kitchens and prefer to cook on portable gas stoves outside their tents. There are also complaints that at night the unlit latrines become sites where prostitution and sexual assault take place. Many women are too scared to use them after dark.