How France's asylum system seeks to protect girls from genital mutilation
France has granted refugee status to 20,000 girls under the age of 18 to protect them from the risk of being genitally mutilated in their country of origin. On 6 February, the UN's International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), we look at the process and growing challenges of obtaining asylum in France in this way.
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The UN estimates that 200 million girls have undergone some form of FGM in 31 countries around the world. And every six minutes another girl will be added to that list.
Carried out in the name of tradition, the practice involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia minora.
Apart from the pain and urinary and menstrual problems it can lead to, FGM complicates pregnancy and childbirth, reduces sexual pleasure and commonly leaves girls both physically and psychologically scarred.
FGM is a crime in France and in 2012 its highest court ruled that anyone fleeing the custom has a right to file for protection under the Geneva Convention.
Each year, thousands of women seek asylum in France – for themselves or more often their daughters – to escape the risk of being cut.
Isabelle Gillete-Faye, President of the National Federation of the Group for the Abolition of Genital Mutilation (GAMS), says France is most likely to grant a girl refugee status "if the mother has been cut, the daughter has not, and they come from a country where FGM is widespread".
This favours applications from, for example, Guinea. "If I'm from Guinea – where 98 percent of girls are cut – there's a high probability that my daughter will be cut if we return to the country of origin."
Other high-risk countries on the African continent include Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Egypt.
Asylum claims are dealt with by the national asylum agency – OFPRA. If granted, the girl receives refugee status while the mother, or parents, can then obtain residency rights "on the grounds that the girl cannot be left alone", Gillette-Faye explains.
Complicated procedure
But while the law protects girls from FGM, obtaining asylum on that basis is far from easy.
"Getting an appointment at the prefecture has become increasingly complicated in the Paris-Ile-de-France region where demand is much greater than in the provinces," Gillette-Faye stresses.
OFPRA also requires a medical certificate from one of its designated medical-legal facilities to prove the girl has not been cut.
"It's the only case in all asylum applications where OFPRA pays for a medical examination," Annalou Kleinschmidt, the agency's specialist in violence against women, told InfoMigrants.
"The idea is for it to be done by doctors trained in that kind of examination because receiving a girl under 18 for a gynaecological examination isn't like just any medical act."
Once asylum has been granted, the examination has to be carried out every three to five years to check that the girl has still not been cut, says Kleinschmidt.
But there's a shortage of centres and "those that are qualified to carry out the test are overwhelmed", regrets Gillette-Faye.
"We've been waiting for years for a circular increasing the number of places, but this still hasn't been issued."
Tougher for all asylum seekers
On 16 January this year, the European Court of Justice ruled that women, as a whole, can be regarded as belonging to a social group and are therefore entitled to asylum if subjected to domestic or sexual violence, including FGM.
It will further protect women and girls seeking asylum in France.
And while France's new immigration law, which seeks to make it easier to deport illegal immigrants, does not specifically target FGM-based asylum claims, there are concerns the law will make things tougher.
"Nothing calls into question asylum for young girls at risk of FGM – it would be contrary to EU law anyway – but the procedure for asylum seekers, which was already difficult, will now be even more complicated," says Gillette-Faye.
"And another thing that worries me hugely is unaccompanied girls – it's going to be even harder for them. Nobody pays attention to them, we don't even have figures on what percentage of unaccompanied minors are girls, but our fieldwork shows that there are more and more."
She also draws attention to the need to consider asylum claims on the basis of region – not just nationality or ethnic group, as is currently the case.
Senegal, where FGM is banned, is not considered a high-risk area, "but a little girl on the border of Senegal and Guinea is as much in danger on the Senegalese side as the Guinean".
The lack of objective, scientific data in some countries of origin is hampering efforts to expand the methodology on evaluating risk. "We're not always able to provide the necessary elements for judges to make a decision on whether to grant asylum or not," she concludes.
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