Parents are wrongly being arrested and having their children taken into care due to the stigma around female genital mutilation (FGM), members of the UK Somali community have told the Victoria Derbyshire programme. They say figures suggesting tens of thousands of girls are at risk in the UK are inaccurate.
Former social worker and Somali campaigner Zainab Nur, from the Hayaat Women Trust, said she knew more than a dozen cases where children were wrongly taken into care because of FGM risk. “These policies are having a massive impact,” she said. “We’re being victimized, we’re being racially profiled as being at risk of FGM, and it’s affecting us.”
She also says she knows hundreds of cases where families were wrongly being referred to safeguarding.

372 views