Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital treats 1,500 victims of Female Genital Mutilation in just FIVE years

January 26, 2015

A Birmingham hospital has dealt with 1,500 cases of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in just five years. The shocking statistic was discussed this week at a meeting of the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel.

Members were told that cases of the sickening practice peaked at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital in 2013 with 349 recorded victims – nearly 20 per cent more than the previous year.

It means around six victims are dealt with at the Bordesley Green-based hospital every single week, showing the true scale of the hidden crime.

FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1984, and since 2003 anyone taking a child out of the UK for the barbaric practice faces 14 years in prison. Despite the rise in hospital cases and an increase in reports to police in 2014 there has not been a single conviction in the UK.

The hospital told the Mail that it deals with an average of six cases every single week and added that all of the victims had been mutilated abroad during childhood. The panel was told by the Muslim Women’s Network that the current support and counselling for victims was simply not good enough. Well stop doing it then. And shop the old crones when they are shipped in, or the little girls are shipped out.

The charity said the latest case it uncovered was just last week and involved a young Yemeni girl from an unnamed Birmingham school.

The Digbeth-based charity said it was regularly contacted by people in the West Midlands who were victims of FGM. It now runs a number of awareness raising workshops with girls inside Birmingham schools, but added that it had particularly struggled to engage with the Yemeni community.

Nobody has been convicted of FGM related offences in the UK but it carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years. It is illegal to take a child out of the country to carry out FGM, but a current legal loophole means that the victim has to be a permanent UK resident for a prosecution to proceed. It was estimated in 2011 that 137,000 survivors of FGM are living in the UK.