S'pore is The Hub for Female Genital Mutilation.

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

Good job PAP. Lets add female genital mutilation to gambling and casinos as our top attractions in the area of SE Asia.

British girls flown to Singapore and Dubai for ‘medicalised’ FGM



British girls are being flown to Dubai and Singapore for a more “medicalised” form of female genital mutilation, experts have claimed.

Professor Hazel Barrett, of Coventry University, said that some people were flying there because they thought the procedure would be done in a more sterile environment than in their African mother countries. She warned that the emphasis on stopping families flying to Africa to cut girls meant those who chose to go elsewhere could be getting away with it.

Professor Barrett said: “The messages are coming through that it’s bad for your health.

“But instead of it being a deterrent they are looking to medicalise it, for somewhere to go where it’s done more ‘safely’.

“It has been mentioned to us there are countries in the Middle East and Far East where people from Europe and the UK can go and get it done.”

She added: “It is done by someone with medical training. It could be in a clinic or a bedroom or a front room, as opposed to a traditional excisor [in African countries] who does one girl after the other.

“We need to publicise this more to alert people — we are not just talking about doing it in the bush with a razor blade.”

A spokesman for the Orchid Project, which campaigns against cutting girls, said it is not illegal in the United Arab Emirates but the ministry of health prohibits it in state hospitals and clinics. It is not believed there are any laws prohibiting it in Singapore.

Julia Lalla-Maharajh, chief executive and founder of Orchid Project, said: “When female genital cutting is done by medical practitioners it carries the risk of the practice being seen as more ‘acceptable’, however the outcomes for the girl are still the same — she still is cut, still might have horrendous complications and her rights will still have been violated.

“Unfortunately, the medicalisation of the practice is on the rise and it must be stemmed.”

The Met police have launched an anti-FGM campaign at Heathrow and other major airports, focusing on flights to and from countries where the practice is widespread.

A Met spokeswoman said: “We are aware that the issue is apparently wider than African countries; our problem is there is no accurate current profile.

“We are not excluding other countries but when considering flights we do focus on those that are carrying families. For example a lot of the Middle East flights are business flights so do not have the right demographic.”


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