The Christian charity World Vision has denied allegations that its staff coerced survivors of Haiti's catastrophic 2010 earthquake into having sex.

A report in the Mail on Sunday yesterday claimed that paid employees of the government-backed humanitarian aid charity were accused of forcing Haitians to have sex or pay for aid in 2010.

However, World Vision has denied the story and argued that it was misleading.

'While we know we did not get everything right, the Mail on Sunday story in the UK and Ireland misrepresents our actions and omits key findings from our investigations, which we described publicly, and which were shared with authorities, donors, and the Mail's journalist, several years ago,' the charity said in a statement, reported by The Independent.

The international children's charity, which is active in more than 90 countries, admitted that investigations it conducted identified issues of sexual exploitation, but said that it had found that those involved were not World Vision staff.

The charity said: 'In our cash-for-work programme in 2010-11, several evaluations conducted by World Vision and our partners highlighted a number of issues in government-run camps; of nepotism, sexual exploitation and inaccurate record-keeping.

'World Vision's extensive investigations into these issues revealed that those involved in sexual exploitation were not World Vision staff. They were community volunteers and cash-for-work beneficiaries themselves.'

World Vision, where Meghan Markle was a global ambassador from 2016 to 2017, added that it reported those issues to authorities and worked in conjunction with them to provide training and follow-up procedures to curb the practices. 

The charity went on: 'We recognise that it is possible there may have been inappropriate behaviour by people employed by or associated with World Vision that went unreported. If that is the case, we encourage anyone who saw or experienced sexual exploitation or abuse to come forward, or to report it through our confidential Whistleblower Hotline, and we will do all we can to investigate.'

The attempt to drag World Vision into the charities scandal comes after outcry over revelations that Oxfam staff sexually exploited vulnerable people in Haiti.

On Saturday, Oxfam admitted that it knew about a Save the Children report from a decade ago which suggested 'significant' abuse was being carried out by aid workers from unspecified charities overseas.

Oxfam has agreed to stop bidding for government funding until ministers are content it can meet the 'high standards' expected, and apologised this week for unspecified sexual misconduct uncovered in a 2011 internal investigation.