Cork TD concerned that female genital mutilation is happening hereWEAK legislation could leave young immigrant girls in Ireland vulnerable to female genital mutilation, a TD had warned.
Speaking to Metro Eireann, Ciarán Lynch, a Labour TD for Cork South Central, commented: “Other European countries have legislated for this. Given the profile of many of our immigrants I am concerned that it could be happening here. If we do not have legislation in place there could be a situation where people could come to Ireland in order to have this procedure carried out.
“My Labour Party colleague Liz McManus put a bill before the house which was voted down at the time, but circumstances have changed and I will be raising it with Mary Harney when the Dáil resumes.”
Metro Eireann asked Lynch if there may be a reluctance to criminalise female genital mutilation (FGM) as this could validate it as grounds for asylum claims. “No, while the threat of physical harm is grounds for claiming asylum, this issue also concerns the safety of children who may already have been through the asylum process and are living here.” FGM is specifically outlawed in the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and Norway. It is classified in Ireland under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act. This does not afford enough protection, according to Lynch.
Salome Mbugua, national director of Akidwa, the network of African women in Ireland, said: “There is a problem in the UK with families bringing their daughters to home countries during holidays to have the procedure done, but we are not aware of this happening in Ireland.
We advocate strongly against it and have worked with Amnesty on this.” Mbugua admits that it is such a sensitive matter that people may be reluctant to talk about it. “If it is happening here it would be very hidden,” she warned.
A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive (HSE) said: “Correspondence informing staff of female genital mutilation has been widely circulated throughout the HSE. The HSE is not aware of any specific cases coming to light where female genital mutilation has been treated by a clinician recently.”
Irish doctors are being urged by the Irish Medical Organisation to report cases of suspected FGM as reported last week in the Irish Medical News. Data from the United Nations Population Fund indicates that there are increasing cases of FGM occurring among immigrant communities living in Europe. This has lead to fears that Ireland may not be able to protect female immigrants to the same extent as other countries. FGM is a ‘cultural’ practice in many countries in sub-Saharan The World Health Organisation defines it as “the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons”.
