The baby daughter of a west African diplomat based in London must not be removed from England after her mother reported that she was at risk of being subjected to female genital mutilation, a High Court judge has ruled.
Mr Justice Keehan made the unprecedented order despite the official’s diplomatic immunity after hearing that the child’s mother had gone to the police to seek help.
The mother, who was herself subjected to FGM aged 12, fears that her husband, who is due to return soon from his posting in London to west Africa, will not act to stop her family cutting the child and risking her death.
She told the court that a relative had a baby “cut” who died. “I just want my child to be safe. Right now my family has disowned me. They ask, ‘Why did you go to the police?’ They are laughing at me,” she said.
The father, who cannot be identified, denied that he would have taken the baby, who is less than a year old, or allowed FGM to be performed. He told the court: “I woke up this morning and prayed that the nightmare in which I find myself will come to an end. I love my child dearly; I would do anything to protect my child and I feel for her mother that she has been traumatised.”
Advertisement
He said that he was opposed to FGM and that the order was unnecessary. “I want to make clear that I find FGM morally repugnant, reprehensible and abhorrent,” he added.
As a senior government official he claimed to have fought the practice. “I am aware of the physical pain, the psychological pain and the lifelong scars.” He added that the child had no passport nor travel documents. “I have absolutely no intention to take her,” he said.
About 65,000 girls in the UK are estimated to be at risk of FGM, which normally takes place between the ages of five and eight. In central sub-Saharan Africa official reports have estimated that between 75 per cent and 90 per cent of young girls, or 125 million, have had the procedure.
FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985 and it is also an offence for a UK national or resident to perform it abroad or assist someone else to carry it out outside the UK on a UK national or resident.
An emergency order sought by Southwark council under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 was granted last week and the baby was made a ward of court. Mr Justice Keehan approved the extension of the order until a full hearing takes place on March 21.
Advertisement
Zimran Samuel, counsel for the local authority, told the court that the mother had said that FGM would have been of the most severe kind. He added: “The local authority has written to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office seeking clarity on the extent of the father’s diplomatic status and immunity and advice on the process by which such immunity could be waived.”
The local authority has also asked the Home Office to request the High Commission where the father is posted to waive the immunity. Mr Samuel said that the father had accepted the serving of the order but that his diplomatic status raised a question of whether he could take part in the legal proceedings.
The council had applied for the case to be heard in private but this was turned down by the judge after representations from the media.