Hello, its monday, its ten oclock. Im victoria derbyshire, and were live from new broadcasting house. Our exclusive story today parents in this country are being wrongly arrested and their kids taken into care because of fears that they will carry out female genital mutilation. The police came to my house to remove our children. They arrested my wife, and they put our children into foster care. We did not know what the allegations were. Nobody asked anything, nobody said anything. It was just really a shock. Yousef and his family have since received an apology. Campaigners say families like his are being racially profiled. Showdown at sandringham the queen, Prince Charles, Prince William and prince harry are meeting together for the First Time Since harry and meghans bombshell announcement. How royal do they want to be . What paid employment will they get . This footage has emerged of harry telling the boss of disney that his wife was up for voiceover work. This author tells us meghan has been subject to racism from parts of the media. A very recent history of regarding africans as savage and primitive, based on their genetic inheritance. Where we are still exoticised as black women constantly in the way we are associated with music and sexuality. This is something that all little black girls in britain have to deal with growing up. And, well speak to
the singer behind this mask. Take it off he said he did the itv show because he wanted to prove to people hes still alive and his mum stil doesnt know he was on it i tried to speak to her this morning but she hasnt gotten back to me. So, she hasnt gone, oh, my god, son, you were on the masked singer. I dont think she knows. Are you joking me . She was probably watching emmerdale hi. Welcome to the programme. Were live until 11 this morning. On our exclusive story this morning. Hibo says, fgm is still taking place, we mustnt forget that for a minute. Mumble tweets, i cant see this is a racist thing at all, its more about personalities about meghan. Whereas nishat tweets, the uk is institutionally racist and its time we stopped the denial. The queen is holding talks at sandringham today to try to map out a future path for the duke and duchess of sussex following their announcement that they want to step back as senior royals. Prince charles, Prince William and prince harry will be at the meeting. Meghan is expected to take part by telephone from canada, where shes staying with the couples son. The Airline Flybe insists its business as usual despite reports that its in crisis talks to try to put together a rescue deal. Its understood the airline, which has already been bailed out once, has been struggling to secure fresh finance. The reports come a year after flybe was bought for £2. 2 million by a consortium
including Virgin Atlantic and the stobart group. Since then, the consortium has invested tens of millions of pounds in the airline but losses have continued. The economy shrank by 0. 3 in the month of november, according to the monthly estimate by the office for national statistics. Thats worse than most economists expected. However, the last quarterly figures showed the economy grew by 0. 1 between the start of september and the end of november better than expected. Labours leadership contenders have until this afternoon to secure enough nominations to get on the ballot paper. Sir keir starmer, rebecca long bailey, Jess Phillips and lisa nandy have secured the backing of 22 mps and meps leaving Emily Thornberry and clive lewis lobbying to get the support they require. Officials in the philippines have warned a volcano thats been spewing lava could erupt within hours. Schools in manila have been closed, flights have been grounded and thousands of homes have been evacuated. This years oscar nominations
will be announced later, with once upon a time in hollywood, 1917, and the irishman, expected to be among the frontrunners. Other contenders are likely to include joker, for which Joaquin Phoenix could win best actor, plus netflixs marriage story, and south korean hit parasite. All eyes will also be on how many minority actors and female directors make it on to the shortlists. I went to see 1917 yesterday, it was grant wrenching, tense and incredibly powerful, and many people we re incredibly powerful, and many people were in tears at the end. Bound to get some oscar nations, of course. Parents in the uk are wrongly being arrested and having their children taken into care 7 because of the stigma around female genital mutilation. That 5 according to some campaigners who say figures which suggest tens of thousands of girls are at risk of fgm in this country are completely inaccurate. Rachel stonehouse has this exclusive film. Its a hidden crime thats been illegal in the uk for 35 years. 2019 saw the First Successful prosecution for female genital mutilation in this country, but is the push for prosecutions wrongly persecuting innocent families . The social Services Never came to our house to, you know, inquire about the allegation, the police never came to my house asking anything about it. All of a sudden, theyjust came and removed the children. All ive known is wales my whole life. The Somali Community say theyre wrongly stigmatized by fgm safeguarding practices. I went through with it. I would never go through with my daughter something i experienced. These policies are having a massive impact. Were being victimized, being racially profiled and its affecting us. Arrested, children taken into foster care and separated from each other. Thats the reality this dad of five, who were calling yousef, faced following a safeguarding referral by the Childrens School. We had a meeting with the Childrens School to tell them that we were relocating to somalia to raise our children. Therefore, while the children can learn the language, they can meet their grandparents. We had a good meeting with the school. He and his wife say they were wrongly accused of planning to take their children abroad for fgm and were unprepared for what happened a couple of days after the meeting with the school. Social services with the police raided my house and removed our children. They arrested my wife and they put
our children into foster care. We didnt know what the allegations were. Nobody asked anything. Nobody said anything. It was just really a shock. At the time i was at work, i wasnt at home. When they removed my children from their mother, they arrested their mother, they called me as well, i couldnt answer because my job involves driving. I couldnt answer the phone and then eventually they texted me, saying that i have to come to the Police Station immediately. Yousefs five children were separated into different foster homes. He says he and his wife were not able to see them during the 12 days they were in care. Do you feel that the school were right to raise the flag to social services in the first place . We trusted our school with our children for five years. They knew us. I mean, children must be safeguarded when theres a danger. But if the danger is just assumed, you know, youre supposed to verify it or, you know, investigate it properly. Dont just assume somethings going to happen based on somebodys background. You know, somebodys ethnicity. Just because we are somalis, that doesnt mean all somalis support fgm, we dont. We dont. The case was closed by Thames Valley police with no further action. And the children were returned to their parents. Slough Childrens Services trust has now apologised to the family and upheld seven of their complaints. It has also agreed to withdraw an fgm protection order which restricts the family from leaving the country without seeking permission. The Services Trust and Thames Valley police told us they cant comment on individual cases, but safeguarding is always the number one priority. Female genital mutilation is the ritual cutting or removal
of some or all of the female genitalia and is practised in some african, asian and middle eastern countries. Unicef figures estimate 98 of women and girls in somalia have undergone fgm. But some somalis living in britain say these figures are out of date. Ive come to cardiff to speak to some mums who say they are racially profiled for something that previous generations did. I went through with it. I would never go through with my daughter something i experienced. So its sad. People are still accusing the family, theyre doing it with their daughters. And is that something that you ladies all feel that actually as a community, you are stigmatised and racially profiled . I think the message from the Education Department and the public and the media,
whats happened is theyve been told that theres a huge epidemic and 60,000 girls are at risk. That data, thats being represented, its all our daughters who are british born and bred are part of that data. So theyve basically racially profiled and said they are at risk of being cut, which really is not. Ive heard of cases from across the uk where parents say theyre wrongly being accused of planning to have fgm done to their children. They say theres very little evidence and that this has a long Lasting Impact on both them and their children. Fgm was done to me when i was about eight years old. And i became really, really sick, overbled, nearly died. Ive also spoken to women like nimo who say because theyve had fgm, Health Professionals sometimes jump to conclusions. I have a diabetic daughter. So she had this, and she had kind of an ear infection. The doctors say to me, did she have fgm done to her . My daughter didnt know anything about fgm. Shes never heard about it. Then he asked. So, yeah, those things do happen. And you get asked in front of the children. So just because youd had it done, there was an automatic assumption . Yeah, automatic. Exactly. And how did that make you feel . I was, i was. Oh, my god. It was because i havent spoken about fgm or had anybody, fgm done to in a long, long time. Come and sit down. The head teacher spoke to you about somalia, and having fgm . Nimo is part of a somali Parents Group in bristol which recently put on a play to highlight these type of issues. We thought about coming together and doing a play and showing the community, the social services, the police and the General Community how the fgm is affecting us, everyday life. The play followed a report by the university of bristol. Dr saffron karlson led the research and questions how many girls are really at risk of fgm in the uk. Increasingly, the evidence suggests that it isnt as big a problem as its assumed to be. Thats, you know, every case. You know, we dont. We want to see an end to fgm. But the way that the Current System is sort of set up appears to sort of criminalise and stigmatise innocent families and families that, you know, theres no evidence to suggest that theyre going to do, that their children are going to be exposed to fgm. The university is now looking to do more in Depth Research in this area, and the Somali Community says now is the time for their voices to be heard. What we have to do is brave enough now to use media to give our voices. So not those individual anti fgm
campaigners who are put on the media by big media platforms and they come speak on our behalf. They are not our voice. Their voice and their stories arent the same as ours. Rachel stonehouse with that report. Lets speak now to zainab nur from the hayaat women 5 trust who says the Somali Community is being racially profiled. Leethen bartholomew from the national fgm centre and janet fyle an anti fgm campaigner from the Royal College of midwives. Welcome, all of you. How many cases do you know of where children have been wrongly taken into care because someone has assumed the parents wanted to make their daughter undergo fgm . I know at least over a dozen cases of children being taken into k that and we would say hundreds of families have been referred to safeguarding and have had a social
services investigation. Women who have attended antenatal appointments over their Health Problems at the hospital and had been referred because they have children under 16. They are told by the Health Professional, midwife, we have to refer you to social services. Because of what reason . They are saying we have to do it because you area saying we have to do it because you are a risk indicator and we are following guidelines. Because you are somali . Because they are african, from a community that used to have a history of doing female circumcision, so, they say theyit female circumcision, so, they say they it is on their risk indicators. They have to do what they are told to do by the government. Does that matter as long as girls are being protected . It does matter, what i am saying is, you would not refer, we wouldnt
prefer girls who have been sexually abused and saying they are at risk of sexually abusing their children. What we are doing is racially profiling these families. They are being told because of something that happened to you as a non consenting child, you are at risk of cutting your child. Most of these women have had very traumatic experiences of what happened to them in this generation. They would not even dare think about doing that to their children. Do you accept racial profiling is happening . Cani happening . Can ijust happening . Can i just say happening . Can ijust say at the start that female gentle you to or fgm in this country is child abuse, and it is against the law, and the public would expect us to do our utmost to protect children who cannot make the choices or do not give their
consent. Of course they wont. Do you think racial profiling is happening . Ido racial profiling is happening . I do not. I believe that when midwives see women who are pregnant initially, one of the things they ask them about is fgm so that they are able to talk to the woman and offer her physical and psychological support. We have heard and it is weather you believe it or not but some women are presenting at surgeries or in hospital, who are somali and had fgm and the assumption is made their children is at risk, is that ok . I will say to you evidence such as ifa i will say to you evidence such as if a mother has had fgm, her child is at risk. A few look at unicef later and the later here and all the research, it is about 20 of children who are at risk of fgm if their mother has had fgm. It is a
risk indicator rather than profiling. These risk indicators are discriminatory and we have equality laws. They need to be removed from the guidelines. If evidence suggests the woman has undergone fgm, there is a risk for the child, why should that risk indicator be removed . In the late 19805 when i was involved in anti fgm campaigns, this information, a few had asked me then, they would have been a risk indicator. There has been lots of awareness, education, we have a fourth generation girls in our community who have never had female circumcision. What is the accurate picture in term5 what is the accurate picture in terms of risk indicators . The truth is if a mother has had fgm, there is a possible indicator
and that should be the starting point of being able to ask questions ina way point of being able to ask questions in a way that does not traumatise the woman again. Risk is a dynamic thing. The mother might have moved oii thing. The mother might have moved on and there is a great possibility she would not want to perform any violence towards her child. When we look at fgm it affects the wider community. You also need to think in terms of does the risk present elsewhere within that family . What do you mean . The mother might have moved on but not the grandparents on either side. And who will hold 5way. You need to ask that. We need to think about the family system where the elders are the ones who hold sway. Cani
sway. Can i ask you about the five children in our example, five children in our example, five children removed from one family, put into five separate foster homes for 12 days, 5imply put into five separate foster homes for 12 days, simply because the family said they were taking their kid5 family said they were taking their kids on holiday to somaliland. Is that 0k . Kids on holiday to somaliland. Is that ok . I am not aware of that case. We have just described case. We haveju5t described it case. We have just described it in our film. It would be inappropriate for me to comment because i dont know about the case. That is what happened. That, 0k, what i want to say is we have a variety of tools to protect children and safeguard children and we would wa nt and safeguard children and we would want to do that. The whole idea of fgm is to prevent it happening to a girl. Ifa fgm is to prevent it happening to a girl. If a Health Professional is going to take out a protection order, there are various stages they need to go through. Do you think that is ok . First of all, i take the position like janet, i dont know the details of the case and cannot comment. Putting myself in those childrens shoes and being removed from the pa re nt shoes and being removed from the parent is never a comfortable thing, not a nice thing at all. The local authority apologised and seven complaints were upheld. That something in that case was not correct. The police as one took the position they would not investigate the case any longer. Based on that i would say it was unfortunate that happened to the children. Going on holiday to somaliland doe5 not strike me as evidence of your children are necessarily under threat, unle55 children are necessarily under threat, unless i am being very naive . You are smiling at me. The issue here is, we do not want to go back to the times when children were
turning up asking us for help in a different way and we were not noticing it. We persuaded the government, we Campaign Together with survivors, to make sure the law is clarified and to protect children and that is what we are doing. And sometimes, along the way in the system