Eleven-year-old girl taken into police protection after man and woman detained at Heathrow airport

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A man and a woman have been detained at Heathrow airport during a Metropolitan police operation targeting female genital mutilation.

The 33-year-old woman from Milton Keynes and 26-year-old man from south-east London were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit child cruelty. An 11-year-old girl travelling with them was taken into police protection.

The couple were held following a flight from Freetown, Sierra Leone via Casablanca. They were released on Thursday and bailed until October pending further inquiries.

On Tuesday Met officers working on Operation Limelight, supported by Hillingdon children’s services and the children’s charity Barnardo’s, targeted three flights – one from Sierra Leone and two from Nigeria – to raise awareness of the crimes of FGM and “breast ironing”.

While FGM is illegal in the UK, it is seen as a rite of passage in many countries in Africa, and up to 140 million women globally are believed to have been affected.

Some families who have moved to Britain from countries where it is prevalent face pressure to have their girls “cut” when they return to those countries during summer or Christmas holidays.

The Met said officers approached and spoke with 49 families from the three flights from Freetown, Abuja and Lagos, totalling 138 people, as part of the operation.

Of the 49 families, 22 were aware that FGM is illegal. The remaining 27 families were supplied with literature and information relating to the illegal status of the practice in the UK.

FGM was made illegal in Nigeria in 2015 but campaigners recognise that it remains a challenge to stamp out the practice, which usually happens in secret.

Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world, and campaigners’ attempts to outlaw the practice have run up against political opposition.

FGM has been illegal in England and Wales for the past 30 years, and the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 made it a crime to be involved in any arrangement for FGM to be performed on another person either inside or outside the UK.

Five arrests have been made as a result of Operation Limelight since it began in August 2013. Last year a hospital doctor was acquitted of carrying out FGM, in the first court case of its kind.

The Met said three more cases were currently being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.

DCS Ivan Balhatchet, of the Met’s sexual offences, exploitation and child abuse command, said the practice was “horrific” and there remained much work to be done to raise awareness that it was a crime to take someone abroad to be cut. “We are not complacent and more still needs to be done,” he said.