Muammar Al Khadafi

Despite recent reports indicating an increasing problem of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Bristol, police have confirmed that despite 3 arrests being made there have been no successful prosecutions.

Estimates voiced by the Bristol Safeguarding Children Board stated that up to 2,000 girls are at risk of the vile practice, and that's just in the Bristol area alone.

Yet, not only have there been no successful prosecutions in Bristol, there have actually been none nationwide at all. Those facilitating the practice could be imprisoned for up to 14 years, and yet to date not one person has been convicted.

Indeed, it seems that the practice of FGM has flourished within the UK.

Bristol based campaigner Nimco Ali, of Somalian origin, who came to the UK at the age of 4, herself underwent the procedure whilst aged 7.

Speaking to the BBC she said that "I only met somebody in my community that wasn't cut a few years ago and she came from Sweden. I didn't know anybody from the Somali community that wasn't cut"

Since she has been here since the age of 4 then that would certainly seem to indicate that, among the Somalian community at least, it is still prevalent and British law which prohibits it is being ignored.

Incidents also appear to be rising, with Detective Chief Inspector Dave McCallum noting that there were four referrals to authorities in the Bristol area in 2009, but this had quadrupled to sixteen referrals in 2010.

"We're getting four or five times the number of referrals we were a few years ago across the board" he told the BBC. The reasons why should be obvious.

And yet, both locally and nationwide, we see no prosecutions whatsoever.

One has to wonder why this is considering the fact that - with medical intervention - it would be easy to prove whether a girl had fallen victim to this.

And we already know that it is a widespread practice among certain communities, and that teachers and healthcare professionals are being trained to spot the signs.

Could it be that cultural sensitivity once again prevents any real action from being taken?

Either way, rising cases and how widespread this issue is shows that, yet again, an imported problem gains a solid foothold in the UK.

The problem did not exist before, and it will not go away because we legislate against it. Simply living in Britain will not compel foreign communities to throw away what they consider to be tradition, whether the law demands it of them or not.

By virtue of mass immigration, problems from the world over suddenly become our problems, it is lunacy to think that mere residency in the UK will act as a 'civilising' factor and see these practices vanish into the history books.

It will take hundreds of years, or longer, for deeply embedded cultural traditions to change, and sadly it is now Britains problem, placing an added burden on the authorities and medical practitioners.