The High Court has overturned the rejection of an application by a six-year-old Irish-born girl for asylum after finding the Refugee Appeals Tribunal had failed to properly assess the high risk of female genital mutilation to her if returned to Nigeria.
FGM was a practice “almost beyond comprehension”, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said. Sixty per cent of females of the Yoruba tribe – of which the child is a member – had been subjected to FGM, principally in early childhood.
The tribunal had failed to properly assess the risk to this child in view of her vulnerable age and membership of the Yoruba tribe, the judge added. He quashed the tribunal’s decision and ordered it to reconsider the application.