A 49-year-old woman was arrested at Heathrow airport after she arrived on a flight from Nairobi, Kenya, at 5am on Wednesday. She was accompanied by an eight-year-old girl who has been placed in protective care, Scotland Yard said. It is not confirmed whether the child travelling with the woman was the suspected victim of FGM perpetrated oversesas.
A 45-year-old man, who was not on the flight, was also arrested at the airport. The suspects have been taken into custody at a south London police station on suspicion of helping a foreign national to commit FGM overseas.
The pair were arrested after an application for a FGM prevention order from the Camberwell child abuse investigation team, the Guardian reported.
Good!
To some extend this meets our demands for the effective protection of children:
1) Interventions should already be possible at an early stage – not only in the case of “imminent danger”.
2) Every suspected threat of genital mutilation must lead to obligatory consequences – until it is ensured that the danger is eliminated in the long term.
3) It must be possible for a judge to order a gynaecological examination of a girl and her sisters, as well as routine control examinations – also without the parents’ consent.
4) The departure of the girl must be – if necessary – prohibited.
5) Judges should have the right to deprive the parents temporarily of their custody rights and to order that the girl shall not stay with her family for a certain time.
6) As a final measure: the final deprivation of custody must also be possible!
