Appeal for tougher action to stop mutilation of young girls

YOUNG girls at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) are being failed by the health and social care system and more must be done to protect them from the barbaric practice, experts have warned.

The brutal procedure, which involves cutting off all or part of the external genitalia, is illegal in the UK but is still carried out in some African, Asian and Middle Eastern immigrant communities.

Hundreds of victims have been treated at hospitals in Bradford and Leeds in recent years and it is suspected many more cases slip under the radar.

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Now, new guidelines have been drawn up by the Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to help health and social care workers identify and protect girls at risk of the practice.

In a report, they warned: “There is a growing consensus that the system is failing to protect girls from FGM and more needs to be done in the UK to intervene early in a child’s life, and to safeguard those girls at risk. Girls at risk of FGM are not receiving adequate protection from harm.”

Medical staff should question all new young female patients to determine whether they, their children or other family members have fallen victim to the practice or are in danger of being mutilated, they recommended.

Health workers giving travel vaccinations to children from affected communities for trips to countries where FGM is prevalent must be aware about the possible risk, they said.

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Schools and social services should also improve the way they gather and pass on information about girls at risk and the procedure should be treated as child abuse and incorporated into safeguarding procedures.

And a national campaign like those used to raise awareness of domestic abuse or HIV should be initiated to highlight the disturbing issue, they added.

RCN director of nursing Janet Davies added: “All health and social care professionals have a responsibility to do all they can to identify and prevent this abuse.

“This important guidance makes it clear that nurses, midwives and doctors must work with the police, teachers and social services when they have concerns.

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“This is a growing problem in the UK, and it requires different agencies working together to try to eradicate FGM.”

There has never been a prosecution for FGM since it was banned in 1985 but Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC said it was “only a matter of time”.

“Female genital mutilation is a crime that affects some of the most vulnerable girls and women in our society. [It] is a crime that will not be tolerated in a modern multicultural society,” he said.

Figures suggest up to 66,000 women in England and Wales have suffered FGM and 23,000 girls under the age of 15 from African communities are “at risk”.

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It was reported earlier this year that 450 women and girls who had suffered FGM have been treated at St James’s Hospital in Leeds in the last three years while 120 were last year revealed to have been seen at Bradford Royal Infirmary.