Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) “parties” in cities across England, a charity has warned.
Latest NHS figures show more than 8,000 women across England have recently been identified as being victims of FGM. The Black Health Initiative in Leeds has released a statement, claiming midwives from Africa are being flown into the country to carry out the illegal practice.
It has been suggested that groups of children and young girls are having the procedure together followed by a celebration. Areas in England with the highest number of recorded FGM victims include Birmingham, Bristol, London and Manchester.
West Yorkshire Police said they were aware girls were being subjected to FGM locally; however the force said it had no “specific intelligence” about FGM “parties” taking place.
FGM is illegal in the UK, carrying a sentence of up to 14 years in jail for those who are caught. The dangerous procedure is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia, for non medical reasons.
A recent report by the Home Affairs Select Committee said it was a “national scandal” that no one in the UK had ever been successfully prosecuted for a FGM offence. There are no definitive figures that detail exactly how many women in England have actually been a victim of FGM; however a study by the City University of London published in 2015 estimated there were 137,000 women who have been subjected to the practice in England and Wales.
Meanwhile, NHS Digital began collating data in April 2015 about the number of women and young girls that have had contact with the NHS, who have been a victim of FGM at some point in their lives. These figures show that 8,718 women have been identified as FGM victims, with 68 females saying the procedure had been carried out in the UK.