Nearly 6,000 women in Ireland have suffered Female Genital Mutilation and more than 1,600 are deemed to be at high risk.
But there has only been one prosecution here since the practice became illegal in 2012.
Garda Detective Inspector Danny Kelly, who worked on the historic case that saw a young girl’s parents jailed, yesterday called for greater cooperation between State agencies in the fight to protect girls in Ireland from FGM.
And advocacy groups warned that more girls are being “subjected to cutting” at home because of the Covid pandemic.
According to AkiDwA and ActionAid Ireland, both NGOs that work with migrant women here and abroad, up to 6,000 women have survived FGM in this country.
Latest CSO figures say as many as 1,632 girls are estimated to be at high risk in Ireland at the moment.
Dr Caroline Munyi, migrant women’s health coordinator at AkiDwA, said: “This figure of 6,000 could be even higher.
“FGM is a form of gender-based violence. It is also a very, very hidden problem.”
In January of this year, a married couple convicted of the FGM of their young daughter were jailed following a trial at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Det Insp Kelly worked on the historic case that brought the perpetrators to justice. He said the gardai strongly condemn FGM, a criminal offence that his colleague Chief Superintendent Declan Daly of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau previously referred to as “a heinous and barbaric practice”.
Det Insp Kelly told the Irish Mirror: “Gardai would take extremely seriously any reports or allegations that FGM had been performed in this country or of a girl being removed from the State with the purpose of having FGM performed.”
