Border Force and Met 'week of action' over illegal procedure intercepts families at Heathrow flying to or from African countries

Police and UK border officials have been runnning a campaign at airports nationwide to intercept families who could have taken their children abroad for female genital mutilation.

The campaign, designed to raise awareness and promote a zero-tolerance approach to the crime, has been in operation over the last seven days at various airports, including Heathrow.

Police and border officials have stopped families suspected of possibly going abroad for FGM to be performed on young girls, as well as families returning to the UK after cutting of a child's body might have taken place.

Keith Niven, detective chief superintendent at the Met's command dealing with sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse, said: "FGM is illegal and constitutes child abuse. Many communities are familiar with the practice but not of its health risks, the fact that it is illegal within the UK, or that there is no religious basis to it.

"By holding this week of action we intend to raise awareness within communities where these offences are prevalent, by engaging with passengers travelling to and from countries where FGM is practised.

"We hope to educate and prevent anyone who [might] engage in this practice, as well as highlight the support that is available for victims subjected to this horrific offence."

Officers were briefed on what to look for with families returning from area where FGM is performed; the countries included Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

Natalie Reseigh, a detective constable, told officers that young girls could often be identified as victims if dressed as "little divas" having undergone what was seen in their culture as a female initiation ceremony.

FGM is allegedly carried out to safeguard a young woman's virginity and her family's honour, and can involve a festival or celebration as part of the ceremony.

"Their dress will be noticeable," she said, of likely victims. "She looks like a mini diva with heels on her shoes, make-up, and wearing beads. Often they are wearing blue make-up. The beads are very symbolic and are put on after the celebration to show the initiation has taken place.

"These girls will still be sore, they may be withdrawn, distanced from their family."

Often the relatives returning with a girl who had been cut were solely female family members, including the mothers, Reseigh added.

The police worked on Thursday with FGM survivors at Heathrow airport, concentrating on two arrivals – British Airways flights from Abuja in Nigeria, and from Sierra Leone.

Hawa Sesay, an FGM survivor, who runs the charity Hawa Trust, said she was put through the procedure at the age of 13 in her home country of Sierra Leone by her aunt.

"Can you imagine it, one knife is used to cut 15 girls – it can transmit HIV, it can transmit other diseases. After cutting in Sierra Leone a lot of girls are left HIV positive. There are serious health issues for the girls who are coming back and who have been cut.

"I have worked with the police and addressed people boarding flights to Nigeria and Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Cairo, this week. I tell them that I am a victim, and now I am a survivor. I tell them that in this country it is forbidden and you can get 14 years in prison if you go out and get it done to your daughter.

"We try and educate them first. I know that when the women got on to the flight to Sierra Leone this week, after we had spoken to them, they would all have been talking on board about what we said, and maybe it has changed some minds.

"First we try and educate them, but if they come back and it has been done to a child, then action has to be taken."

Sariam Kamara, of Forward UK, who was also working with the Met at Heathrow, said: "This is about safeguarding. You might talk to a family coming in and it might be too late, but it will send a clear message out there because people discuss this in their communities afterwards. I am sure the message is being received. We have to target the people going to those countries where FGM happens.

"Most of them do it not with the knowledge that it's against the law here. They do it out of love because it's been passed on from generation to generation. They believe they are doing the right thing for that child.

"But we have to show there is a zero-tolerance approach here. As survivors we have to speak out and explain how this has affected us as a child and as an individual."

Samantha Rigler, head of the Border Force Heathrow safeguarding and trafficking team, said the UK Border Agency was providing intelligence and doing additional checks on passengers in support of the operation.

"We are clear that FGM is child abuse, it is illegal and there can be no excuse for it," she said. "Through operations like this we will continue to work with the Metropolitan police service to identify and protect victims or potential victims, and stop the perpetrators."