The passports of girls at risk of female genital mutilation will be confiscated to stop them being taken abroad to suffer the procedure.
Under sweeping legal reforms announced today by the Government, the courts will be able to use new FGM protection orders to order the removal of travel documents whenever they believe there is a danger that a girl will be taken overseas to be cut.
The powerful orders could also permit the mandatory medical examination of girls in danger and require potential victims to live at a named address so that the authorities can check on their wellbeing. The reform is one of a number of measures to tackle FGM being introduced via amendments to the Serious Crime Bill tabled in Parliament today.
Other changes will create a new legal duty on parents to protect their daughters from mutilation, with the threat of prosecution if they fail to do so — a reform designed to address concerns that it is often too difficult under existing law to show that a parent allowed or facilitated mutilation.
Victims will also be given a lifelong right to anonymity in a bid to make it easier for them to give evidence in court and help to bring perpetrators to justice. But the introduction of the new power to confiscate passports is likely to have the biggest impact. A large number of girls are thought to be taken abroad to be mutilated during the summer holiday “cutting season”.
Justice minister Mike Penning said: “FGM is child abuse and the Government is committed to tackling and preventing this harmful and unacceptable practice.
“We are introducing an unprecedented package of measures to strengthen protection for victims, encourage them to report the crime to the police and get support. We also want to prosecute those who knowingly let this terrible abuse happen to children they are responsible for.
“We know that legislation alone cannot eradicate this unacceptable practice. But it is important that we change the law where necessary.”
Police, social workers, teachers and others such as friends or relatives of a potential victim will be able to obtain one of the new FGM protection orders by applying to the courts with evidence that a girl is at risk of mutilation.
If the court agrees, civil restrictions will be imposed, ranging from residence requirements to travel bans and mandatory medical examination, to protect the girl. Breach of the order will be a criminal offence.
One advantage of the new orders is that they could allow girls to be kept safe while living with their parents instead of being taken into care.
They will also make it easier for police, social workers and others to take protective action because the burden of proof required to obtain such civil orders is lower than that required to bring criminal charges.
The problem of girls being taken overseas to be cut was highlighted this summer by police operations at airports which led to the arrest of several adults suspected of taking children abroad to undergo FGM. Although it is illegal to take a girl overseas to be cut the difficulty of obtaining evidence means that no prosecution for mutilation abroad has yet been brought.
Tens of thousands of girls and women in Britain are thought to be affected. The first official NHS figures, published last week, showed that just under 1,000 women and girls with FGM were treated in London hospitals last month.
Tributes paid to ‘mother’ of FGM campaigns
Tributes poured in today following the death of a leading campaigner described as the “mother” of the movement to stop female genital mutilation.
Efua Dorkenoo OBE, from the charity Equality Now, passed away at the weekend after leading the fight against FGM for several decades.
Public health minister Jane Ellison said she was “mother to a movement” and “beloved inspiration to so many of us” and added: “Generations of girls will bless her.”
Ms Dorkenoo, who leaves a husband Freddie and sons Kobina and Ebow, began campaigning against cutting in the Eighties. Between 1995 and 2001 she worked as the World Health Organisation’s first technical expert on the problem. She was awarded an OBE for her work as founder of the charity Forward and for her campaigning. Her book, Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation, The Practice and its Prevention, was included on the prestigious 2002 list of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century.
Hekate Papadaki from the Tackling FGM Initiative said: “It is no accident that Efua was known to all of us as ‘Mama Efua'… Efua has changed the lives of more girls than would ever come to know her.” Her colleagues at Equality Now said she “transformed” the UK’s response to FGM.