Women living in Southwark are eight times more likely to have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) than those elsewhere in England, according to a council report.
In 2021 one in 25 women and girls (4%) aged over fifteen had undergone FGM compared to just 0.5% nationally, the report found.
It is estimated that as many as 5,900 women and girls are affected in the borough, including 500 aged under fifteen.
Of the 160 Southwark resident women recorded to have FGM in 2020 to 21, two-thirds were born in Eastern or Western Africa.
Thankfully, none of the 160 FGM cases recorded in Southwark between 2020 and 2021 involved children under the age of eighteen.
Just three per cent of those recorded had been born in the UK.
FGM has been a specific criminal offence in the UK since 1985 under the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act.
It is defined as all procedures that involve the partial or total removal of external female genitalia, or other injury to women’s genital organs, for non-medical reasons.
In a bid to end the practice, Southwark Council has established an FGM clinic at a local school and does mandatory safeguarding training for school staff.
The Health and Social Care Scrutiny Commission has recommended the reopening of a specialist FGM clinic after the closure of one in 2017 led to “confusion”.
According to the report, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital has had a gap in its support provision ever since the retirement of a single midwife who specialised in FGM.
90 per cent of cases are identified by the midwifery service but only the most severe cases, likely to affect childbirth, generally saw women referred to specialist clinics outside the borough.
The report found that “nearly all women and girls known to have FGM in Southwark experienced it 30 or more years ago outside of the UK”.
However, it also said support for the practice continued “within some communities living in Southwark”.
The reported added that “diaspora and migrant parents face overwhelming cultural and social pressures to perform the practice when travelling back to home countries to visit family”.
If you or somebody you know is affected by FGM you can get support here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/female-genital-mutilation-fgm/