FGM was made a criminal offence in Britain in 1985 and offenders face a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain plans to change legislation so that foreign citizens who take their daughters abroad to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) will face trial, the Evening Standard reported on Wednesday.
The reform is designed to address concerns that some suspected offenders are escaping justice because they are foreign citizens who are not permanent residents in Britain, the newspaper said.
The new law would make it a crime for any foreign national who is "habitually resident" in Britain to carry out or assist in the cutting of a girl from the UK.
It would also make it illegal to inflict FGM on a foreign-born girl who is "habitually resident" in Britain, even if she is not a British citizen, the report said.
"Legislation alone cannot eradicate this terrible practice," the Evening Standard quoted Justice Minister Damian Green as saying. "But it is important that we change the law where necessary."
The government says around 24,000 girls living in Britain may be at risk of FGM - a ritual practised by some ethnic communities in which the external genitalia are partly or totally removed.
FGM was made a criminal offence in Britain in 1985 and offenders face a maximum penalty of 14 years in jail.
In March, the authorities announced that a doctor would go on trial for carrying out FGM on a woman after she had given birth at a London hospital - in Britain's first prosecution of the crime.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
