(Reuters) A British court said on Wednesday it had no power to stop the deportation of a 10-year-old girl at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) after authorities rejected her mother’s asylum application.
The girl’s mother, who travelled to Britain from Bahrain and would be sent back there if deported, had expressed fears that Bahraini authorities could force her and her daughter to return to Sudan, where she is originally from.
Sudan has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world. Most girls there undergo the practice, which involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia, aged between 5 and 9.
A British family court had ruled that the girl, who was not named in court proceedings, could be subjected to FGM if taken abroad after social services applied for a protection order to stop her being deported.
