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Councils urged to step up support for survivors of FGM

This research follows last year’s report that revealed an estimated 137,000 women and girls with FGM, all born in countries where FGM is practised, were living permanently in England and Wales in 2011.

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Other authorities in Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Coventry, Sheffield, Reading, Thurrock, Northampton and Oxford had rates of over 0.7 per cent.

The new report from City University London and the chairty Equality Now shows that every part of the country is affected by FGM, which is illegal to perform and considered torture by the UN.

While individuals born in nations the place FGM is practised have a tendency to be concentrated in city areas, no native authority space is probably going to be free from the apply exclusively, the report stated.

It also looked at the number of FGM survivors giving birth in England and Wales, and found the estimated percentage of girls born to mothers who have experienced FGM ranged from 10.4 per cent in the London borough of Southwark to under 0.1 per cent in many other areas.

A Government consultation is also due to be launched this week including details on making it mandatory for all professionals, including doctors, nurses and teachers, to report FGM in under-18s.

Other measures introduced since the summit include training for hundreds of Border Force officers at UK ports and airports to identify girls who may be at risk of being taken overseas for FGM or forced marriage.

The World Health Organisation defines female genital mutilation as all procedures involving the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

It is estimated that more than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 in the UK are at risk each year, yet very few cases are reported.

“We urge the U.S.to provide a public update on its plans to ensure all efforts to end FGM are sustainable and supported with funding, and support and encourage state efforts to end FGM at local levels”, Shelby Quast, policy director at Equality Now, said earlier this week.

“They suggest that women who have undergone FGM are living in virtually every part of England and Wales”.

“This means stepping up work to prevent it, protecting girls at risk, providing support to survivors, pursuing prosecutions when necessary and continuing to develop relevant partnerships”, she said.

Estimates came from calculating the number of women in Britain who were born in countries where FGM is practiced, how common the practice is in those countries and where the victims live now.

The study, funded by charity Trust for London and the Home Office, concluded that all areas of England and Wales needed services and strategies to meet the needs of FGM victims.

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“The UK as a whole should also continue to lead the way on providing a model to tackle this extreme form of violence against girls and women”.

City University