FGM in Europe: Facts
* Up to 500,000 girls and women living in the European Union are affected or threatened by FGM. * 75,000 of them live in Great Britain, 65,000 in France, 30,000 in Germany. * The victims are migrants, whose families took along this practice when they immigrated. * In spite of the fact that FGM is in most European countries either directly or indirectly prohibited, the laws are either incomplete or they are not enforced. The only country in which legal proceedings in connection with Female Genital Mutilation have ever been instituted, is France. * Most European countries hardly invest in awareness training and in investigations. * There are no effective cross-border measures against Female Genital Mutilation. Any efforts – which vary tremendously in their degree – take place within the country borders. FGM is still not considered to be a European problem. * The victims are usually approached in the health sector and by authorities in an inadequate way, ignorance prevails. * FGM is in hardly any European country a regular part of the vocational training of doctors, midwives and social workers. * No European country explicitly accepts the threat of genital mutilation as a reason for asylum