UK targets East Africans over FGM

Girls who have undergone FGM leave the compound of the circumciser in Kuria East, Kenya. The practice is outlawed in East Africa. File

What you need to know:

  • An estimated 300,000 Kenyans, Ugandans and Somalis are living in Britain.
  • Over 170,000 women who have undergone FGM in the UK have remained silent on the issue.
  • Over 200,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be at high risk of FGM in England and Wales each year with nearly 66,000 women having experienced FGM.
  • A 72-year-old Ugandan man and a 40-year-old woman travelling into London from Entebbe with an 11 year-old girl were arrested over suspicions of FGM.

The East African community in the UK is being targeted in a crackdown on female genital mutilation following a summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Children born of Kenyan, Somali and Ugandan parents living in Britain are believed to be particularly vulnerable to FGM because of cultural practices.

There are an estimated 300,000 Kenyans, Ugandans and Somalis living in Britain and they — alongside Nigerians — have already been subject to a poster campaign urging the community to report anyone suspected of either being at risk of FGM or engaging in the practice.

British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted an international summit on the issue in London on July 22, in which he said “All girls have the right to live free from violence and coercion, without being forced into marriage or the lifelong physical and psychological effects of female genital mutilation.

“Abhorrent practices like these, no matter how deeply rooted in societies, violate the rights of girls and women across the world, including here in the UK.”

In the first sign of the crackdown, UK police arrested a 72-year-old Ugandan man and a 40-year-old woman travelling into London from Entebbe with an 11 year-old girl last weekend, on July 26.

The girl was taken into the care of UK social services as she was believed to be at risk of FGM. A Ugandan doctor who has been campaigning to end the practice in the UK says she is “shocked” by the scale of the problem among thousands of African women and dismayed by resistance to the issue being discussed within the medical profession.

Dr Phoebe Abe, who has been a doctor in the UK for 26 years, started the Dr Abe Foundation in Britain in March 2013 after discovering dozens of women who came to see her at her medical practices in Berkshire and London had been victims of FGM.

Most of the estimated 170,000 women who have undergone FGM in the UK have remained silent on the issue despite the fact that it is banned in Britain and in many African countries where they originated. Most of these women are from Africa and the Middle East with hundreds of women from East Africa among the victims.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said that FGM and forced marriage “are incredibly harmful practices, and it is terrible to think about the number of women and girls in the UK who have been subjected to these crimes.”

Ms May said that FGM was “illegal” and it was “child abuse,” which is why the British government has taken urgent steps to tackle the issue given its growing prevalence among some African communities in Britain.

Mothers who suspect a girl in their community is at risk of FGM are urged to call a dedicated helpline run by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for advice and support.

Over 200,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be at high risk of FGM in England and Wales each year, with nearly 66,000 women having experienced FGM.