female genital mutilation

The growing Somali community in the UK are going back on extended holdidays to Somalia - the country they claimed in the first place is so dangerous they want asylum. Female genital mutilation is also an issue.

Cultural and legal dissonance

A program on BBC TV's Newsnight on 24/7/12 looked at the growing Somali community in the UK and the frequent issue of (illegal) Female genital mutilation of children in the commnity. It compared (culturally sensitive Britain, and no doubt Canada too) with the Somali community in France. In France people are jailed for up to seven years for perpetrating this practice, but in the UK no prosecution has taken place despite frequent evidence that this is happening. Some of the girls interviewed were articulate and condemned the practice, saying the UK Government should do more to intervene. However, I was struck by the number who said that they were fearful of FGM 'when back on holiday in Somalia'.

No questions asked

No questions were asked as to how a community that predominantly use an 'asylum seeker route' to seek settlement in the UK and elswhere can now be taking regular holidays back in Somalia, which by all accounts is still a very unsafe place. The additional issue of how a community that has one of the highest welfare dependency and poorest employment records in their adopted country can afford to fly back to Somalia on extended holidays, was not explored. It should be. This is probably the tip of an iceberg in manipulating residence status by asylum claimants.

Tim Murray who also blogs on candobetter tells me that many former asylum seeking Tamils from Sri Lanka now resident in Canada frequently return to Sri Lanka on vacation. Such abuses of our asylum/refugee systems are costing us billions in extended support and infrastructue costs, yet our governments turn a blind eye.