HUNDREDS of young girls in Britain are suffering
genital mutilation at the hands of women paid to come to Britain by
their families.
African immigrants are clubbing together to pay for practitioners
to fly to Britain and circumcise their daughters in highly secretive
rituals.
Police believe that the trend has developed among parents who do
not have passports or cannot afford to return to their home
countries to have their daughters circumcised, a brutal practice
that remains commonplace throughout Africa.
The procedure is generally performed by
elderly women, in unsterilised conditions with no anaesthetic.
Children as young as five have parts or all of their clitoris or
labia removed. Some have their vaginas sewn up or the flesh shrunk
with corrosives.
Last week, Esther Fornah, 19, was granted asylum because she
faced being forced to undergo female genital mutiliation if she were
returned to her home country of Sierra Leone.
In an interview with The Times, Esther said: “If I’d been
sent back to Sierra Leone I would have been forced to have it done
and they would have punished me more for exposing it and made it
even more painful. I would rather have killed myself than go back.”
In Britain, female circumcision — or female genital mutilation
(FGM) — is illegal, and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’
imprisonment. The penalty has, however, failed to halt the practice,
with thousands of young girls taken abroad each year for that
purpose. There has never been a prosecution, although it has been an
offence since 1985 with the introduction of the FGM Act. Since 2003,
taking a child to another country to have it done has also been an
offence.
Female circumcision among the African community in Britain has
been commonplace for years but the wider population has been unaware
of it. Now, however, police, social services and health workers have
become concerned. They believe it to be widespread, with about
25,000 young girls remaining at risk in Britain, according to the
Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development (Forward).
A specialist unit has been set up by Metropolitan Police child
abuse investigation detectives to tackle the problem in tandem with
other agencies. Over the past year they have monitored schools and
airports and advised minority communities that sending their
daughters abroad for genital mutilation is illegal. This has
resulted in about 20 successful interventions.
Detective Inspector Carol Hamilton, an expert in the field, said:
“One primary school child was overheard telling her friends that she
was going to be taken to her home country and there would be a
party, a ceremony, because she was becoming a woman. Police and
social services visited the girl’s home. They said they were not
stopping the family from going away, but wanted the parents to know
that FGM was against the law, that their daughter would be monitored
on her return, and they could be arrested if she had had it done.
“This particular family didn’t know that it was against the law
and took the advice fully on board — many people still think it’s OK
if you go abroad.”
However, she said there had been a worrying development. “The
information we’re now getting is that people who don’t have
passports or who can’t afford to go abroad are clubbing together to
pay for someone to come in. But getting the details is a problem.
People always say it doesn’t happen in their area, but they’ve heard
it takes place elsewhere.”
The procedure is highly dangerous and leaves many of its victims
with health problems throughout their lives. Infections and cysts
are commonplace, as are complications during childbirth, endangering
both mother and baby. Women who have suffered genital mutilation are
twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to
give birth to a stillborn child.
Despite the dangers, many African Muslim communities prize the
ritual and ostracise women who are not circumcised. It is common in
a band stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East
coast and in many areas uncircumcised women cannot find a husband.
One health worker who helps the Somali community in Sheffield
said: “At 12 or 13, some girls are pressured by their peer group if
they haven’t had it done. They will be ostracised or seen as
unclean.”
Over the summer, police ran a poster campaign aimed at parents
taking their daughters on “holiday” for the procedure, produced a
DVD for community leaders and are negotiating with BAA to show a
rolling 30-second video at airport departure lounges reminding
people of the penalty.
But there has been frustration at the lack of prosecutions. Ann
Clwyd, the Labour MP who brought the Bill that became the 2003 Act,
voiced her dissatisfaction in the Commons last year, saying: “When I
introduced the legislation, I expected some prosecutions to follow.
“Acts that have been in force for 20 years without any
prosecutions mean that 7,000 young girls in this country are
estimated to be at risk of being taken abroad for those procedures.”
Agencies working with those at risk say that victims will not
admit that they have been forced to undergo mutilation because they
fear their family or community elders could be investigated.
Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital runs an African well women’s
clinic that treats about 400 victims of female genital mutilation
every year.
A BARBARIC BUT COMMON RITUAL
Female genital mutilation has been illegal in Britain since 1985
The law now criminalises the practice outside Britain on British
citizens or permanent residents. Aiding and abetting it is an
offence
The maximum penalty for committing or assisting is 14 years’
imprisonment
A claim for asylum by a girl facing mutilation was refused
because, it was said, she was not in a social group fearing
persecution — a Refugee Convention requisite. Five law lords have
just overturned that decision
The practice is common in 28 African countries and some Asian
and Middle Eastern communities
It is usually done to girls aged 4 to 13, but is sometimes
inflicted on babies
Reasons given include custom and tradition, religious demand,
family honour, hygiene, a belief that it enhances fertility, and to
control women’s sexuality
It is thought to have been carried out on about 75,000
first-generation female African immigrants in Britain
Afterwards women are twice as likely to die in childbirth and
three times as likely to have a stillborn child
Unicef estimates that 100 million to 130 million women have had
the procedure, often performed with a basic cutting instrument under
little or no anaesthetic
The practice contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child