Submitted by crinadmin on
[18 October 2006] - A teenager who fears being subjected to female circumcision if returned to Sierra Leone has been granted asylum. Five Law Lords overturned decisions by an Immigration Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, who ruled asylum laws did not apply to Zainab Fornah, 18. The Refugee Convention says successful asylum seekers must come from a social group fearing persecution. The Law Lords ruled female members of tribes where female genital mutilation was almost universal were such a group. Baroness Hale of Richmond added it was a mystery why the case had reached the House of Lords as it was so "blindingly obvious" that asylum laws applied. Last year the Court of Appeal ruled young women facing female genital mutilation could not be considered as "a social group fearing persecution" under the terms of the convention. That was because the custom was so widespread in Sierra Leone and so bound up with its culture and traditions. But on Wednesday Lord Bingham of Cornhill ruled that women in Sierra Leone were clearly "a group of persons sharing a common characteristic which, without a fundamental change in social mores, is unchangeable - namely a position of social inferiority as compared with men". Further information