Ex lies

[familyaffairs]

My Ex lied about my family to obtained residency.My Ex told nspcc that my family practice Fgm which was all lies .I want to contest this.Please advise

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear familyaffairs

Welcome to the parents’ board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser. We provide advice and information to families who have children’s services’ involvement, in England.

I am sorry to hear about your family situation.

You state that your ex-partner lied about your family for immigration purposes. You explain that they contacted the NSPCC alleging that your family practise female genital mutilation. You say this is not true. You say that you want to contest.

I understand that it is very distressing if you feel that you or your family have been falsely accused of practising an abusive act or committing a crime.

I hope the advice below will help explain why concerns about the risk of FGM must be taken very seriously and investigated.

As you are aware, FGM is a form of child abuse and a criminal offence. Therefore, when the NSPCC received a referral alleging that your family may practice FGM they are required to take this very seriously and refer to children’s services and the police where a child or children may be at risk of harm. The NSPCC has a specialist FGM helpline and email address so your ex-partner may have made the referral via this service or their child protection helpline.

It is not clear from your post exactly what you want to contest. But I will try to offer some suggestions.

If you want to challenge the NSPCC on their response you would need to do contact them directly to do so.

If you are unhappy with children’s services’ response to a referral about FGM then please clarify this. All agencies and professionals have a duty to safeguard children from risk of harm. Children’s services are the lead agency and have a statutory duty to investigate if they suspect that a child may be at risk of significant harm. You can find out more about child protection processes here. Children’s services also have a complaints process; please see here for more details.

If you are wanting advice about your ex-partner’s immigration situation and how they obtained it then unfortunately that is outside our remit. You could contact the CAB for advice, as a starting point. Or you can contact the Home Office if you want to report an immigration crime.

Please post back or call the freephone advice line to discuss what happened in your situation e.g. in terms of how social workers responded to you and to get advice on what you can do. The freephone helpline number is 0808 8010366 and the lines are open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri (except bank holidays).

I hope that is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie