Excerpt:
Northern Ireland’s biggest health trust has seen 17 cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in just over nine months.
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust confirmed via Freedom of Information that the cases were identified between April 2017 to 15 January 2018.
The women were aged from 24 years to 46 years.
Their country of origin was not recorded.
FGM means the partial or total removal of the external female genitals or other injury to female genital organs without medical reason.
It is a crime in the UK and is recognised internationally as a human rights violation.