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Nearly 2,000 patients in Germany last year were diagnosed with genital mutilation in need of treatment, a women’s rights group said on Friday, showing a sharp increase in recent years.
The figure is up almost 40% compared to 2016, when around 1,300 diagnoses were made of people who had previously undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) and needed treatment, according to the Task Force for the Effective Prevention of FGM.
The Task Force conducted a survey of German medical associations and the results showed that approximately 200 of those diagnosed were minors, half of whom were under 12 years of age.
The research included women who received outpatient care from mandatory health insurance providers. Cases discovered during hospitalizations or during private medical treatment were not included.
‘The tip of the iceberg’
“What we see in these figures is just the tip of the iceberg and represents perhaps 2 to 5% of the actual mutilation victims living in our country, because political leaders do not want a complete collection of data,” said the founder of TaskForce, Ines Laufer. of the current situation in Germany.
The human rights group estimates that more than 20,000 girls may have been subjected to female genital mutilation because they or their parents “come from countries with a female genital mutilation rate higher than 75%, such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Mali and Somalia, among others, “states the TaskForce website.
The unusually large number of migrants allowed into Germany from the Middle East and Africa in 2015 and 2016 is believed to help explain the rise in known numbers of FGM in Germany in recent years.
“We call for the implementation of state protection measures, such as regular medical checks and the introduction of mandatory medical reports to the police authorities if genital mutilation is found in underage victims,” said Ines Laufer.
Female genital mutilation, also known as female genital cutting (FGC), is a practice that involves the removal of part or all of the female genital organs, such as the clitoris or labia, for non-medical reasons.
In addition to serious bleeding, female genital mutilation can cause a variety of health problems, from infections and cysts to infertility and complications during childbirth. It can also result in an increased risk of newborn death, according to the World Health Organization.
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