Travel Hubs: Eurostar Stations and Share Intelligence

travel hubs: In the past week, officials also targeted travel hubs including Heathrow, JKF airport and Eurostar stations, approaching people travelling from countries where the practice is common and encouraging them to report any concerns, according to CTV. The mutilation of girls' external genitals for non-medical reasons, sometimes known as female circumcision, is practiced in some two dozen African countries and parts of the Middle East and Asia. Police and border security agencies on both sides of the Atlantic signed a new agreement to share intelligence about when and where victims may be taken for the procedure, known as FGM, and help identify perpetrators. It also affects many immigrant and refugee communities in Europe and the U.S., where some families avoid detection by taking girls abroad for the cutting, often during school holidays. It is still legal in much of the United States, and there are half a million victims in the United States. It's not just in Africa and Asia ... The fact is FGM is also happening in the U.S., it's happening here in the U.K, and is still happening to our young girls when they travel abroad, said Lew Lukens, Charge d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in London. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.