Nigerian mum lied about Female Genital Mutilation so her daughters can stay in the UK

via Express.co.uk

In what has been described as an 'immigration scam', to stay in Britain, a Nigerian mother told a court that her ex-husband was forcing their daughters to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). 

The three daughters, aged 13, 10 and seven, were some of the first women to be made the subjects of FGM protection orders in Britain.

In July, a UK High Court judge concluded the girls needed to be kept safe after the court heard their father had made arrangements from them to be 'cut'.

But after he came to the UK to deny the allegations, another judge said the woman "fundamentally and dishonestly misrepresented the true position".

The mother and her three children arrived in Britain on a two-year visa more than three years ago.

In June, she failed to persuade Home Office officials to give her leave to stay in the UK, and an appeal was dismissed later that month.

Then the next month, she began to make allegations of FGM against her ex-husband - claiming asylum on the basis of the "alleged threat of FGM" to her daughters.

The illegal immigrant also said he had asked her to send the children to Nigeria so that FGM could be carried out on the two older girls, and had sent 'white ceremonial robes'.

That same month, a high court judge ruled that the three daughters must be protected from the barbaric procedure.

But Mr Justice Holman had stressed that he had only heard the 'one-sided account' of the woman - and he said the girls' father could mount a challenge.