Two stories of women from Sierra Leone who survived FGM
Fighting for refugee status recognition in Greece
On the occasion of 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we share the stories of two women from Sierra Leone who were subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) in their country. Their vulnerability and the risk they faced were not even initially recognised during the asylum process in Greece.
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Recent Appeals Committees’ decisions in Greece, issued in the context of asylum applications, have recognised the need for granting international protection to women persecuted through the practice of FGM in their countries of origin. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an extremely violent and harmful practice rooted in patriarchal and sexist stereotypes, aiming to control women’s bodies and constituting a flagrant form of gender-based discrimination and human rights violation. Refugee Support Aegean (RSA) has represented cases of women from Sierra Leone who are survivors of this violent practice and arrived in Greece over the past two years. At first instance, their asylum applications were rejected in Greece. They were recognised as refugees only at second instance, following the examination of their appeals by the Appeals Committees.
In this text, we present two indicative stories of women from Sierra Leone who received legal assistance from our legal team to ensure that the Greek authorities recognised their protection needs. The text also provides an overview of FGM as a form of gender-based violence, the relevant standards under international law, and the treatment of FGM survivors’ cases from Sierra Leone within the Greek asylum system in recent years:
Laura*’s story
From loss and violence to the recognition of refugee status
Laura*, originally from Sierra Leone, arrived in Greece in late 2022 together with her husband and their newborn child, when the boat they were on struck rocks, causing everyone to fall into the water. To this day, she still cannot believe what happened. After barely managing to reach the shore, masked men indiscriminately chased them. As they ran, Laura* was forced to be separated from her husband, who was holding their critically ill baby in his arms.
The masked men violently restrained her, stripped her, and subjected her to a physical and even vaginal (!) search. They then forced her onto a life raft and abandoned her, along with other people, near the Turkish coast. Turkish authorities, who found them shortly thereafter, arrested her and placed her in detention. Only some days later did she manage to contact her husband, who had remained in Greece, and learn of their baby’s death.
For Laura*, who was still recovering from a recent caesarean section, her abduction and abandonment off the Turkish coast was not just a violent pushback; it was a deeply traumatic and degrading experience that revived memories and images of the brutal FGM she had undergone in Sierra Leone.
She was only 15 years old when she was subjected to a forced initiation ritual and clitoridectomy. To this day she tries to forget the violent and humiliating treatment she endured, particularly the bleeding and extreme pain she felt.
A few days after her return to Turkey, Laura* was eventually released by the Turkish authorities and tried once again to enter Greece. This time she succeeded and was placed under reception and identification procedures in a Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC). These procedures include an obligation to assess potential vulnerability; however, in her case, her status as an FGM survivor was neither identified nor recognised. Laura* was assessed as non-vulnerable, resulting in her receiving no further care or support. Ultimately, with the help of humanitarian organisations and her RSA lawyer, the geographic restriction imposed on her was lifted, allowing her to travel, reunite with her husband, and attend the funeral and burial of their child.
During the examination of her asylum application, the Asylum Service accepted that Laura* was vulnerable, including as a survivor of violence, yet still rejected her claim, concluding that despite the persecution she had already suffered in Sierra Leone, the future risk of being subjected again to FGM if returned was “not significant enough” (!) given her age.
Laura* appealed, requesting a full re-examination of her case, stressing, through her RSA lawyers, that she had already suffered persecution as a member of the particular social group of young women subjected to forced initiation and clitoridectomy, and that she continues to face a real and unavoidable risk to her life, freedom and physical integrity.
The Appeals Committee ultimately found that the genital mutilation she had suffered in Sierra Leone constituted a “permanent harm”, taking into account “its permanent and irreversible nature… combined with the particularly long-lasting consequences it has caused to her physical and mental health”. The Committee concluded that the persecution Laura* faced stemmed from both state and non-state actors against whom she could not obtain protection. Laura* was recognised as a refugee in April 2024 and today lives in Greece with her husband and their second child.
The story of Mariatu* and her daughter
Recognition after the initial rejection
“When the first rejection [decision] came, I felt worthless. I was pregnant and terrified that they would send me back. When the positive decision finally came [on second instance], I couldn’t believe it. I had lost all hope. It felt like a miracle for me and our daughter.”
Mariatu*, from Sierra Leone, was recognised as a refugee in September 2024. When we asked her how she felt, her face lit up. She told us:
“I was very happy when I managed to arrive here. When the first rejection [decision] came, it was extremely stressful for me. I felt worthless. I was pregnant and terrified that they would send me back. When my fiancé told me that the positive decision had arrived [Note: on second instance], I didn’t believe him. I thought he was lying. I had lost all hope. It felt like a miracle for me and our daughter. Now I am very happy.”
Mariatu* arrived in Greece with her fiancé in late 2023 while pregnant, and her asylum application was registered upon arrival. During the reception and identification procedures carried out at the Closed Controlled Access Centre (CCAC), it was established that she had been subjected to FGM, and her vulnerability was recognised both as a survivor of torture and as a pregnant woman.
Her asylum application, however, was rejected by the Asylum Service in May 2024 on the grounds, among others, that she would not be at risk of being subjected to FGM again, given that she was now an adult. The same decision ordered her return to Sierra Leone, despite the fact that she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Her daughter was born two weeks later.
In her appeal, submitted with the support of RSA’s lawyers, Mariatu* stressed that she had a well-founded fear of persecution in Sierra Leone, as her newborn daughter would be at risk of being subjected to FGM if they were returned, in line with prevailing traditional practices. Her appeal was upheld by the Appeals Authority, which granted refugee status to both mother and child. Today, the family wishes to remain in Greece, to work, and for their daughter to attend a Greek school.
FGM: Gender-based violence and international law
“Traumatic. Painful. Irreversible.”
These are the words used by UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, to describe female genital mutilation (FGM). It is a practice rooted in deeply entrenched patriarchal and sexist norms, which gravely violates women’s rights and bodily integrity, causing survivors long-term physical and psychological harm, irreversible damage, and lifelong suffering. FGM is practiced in around 30 countries in the world.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), female genital mutilation constitutes a form of gender-based violence that causes severe harm, both physical and psychological, and amounts to persecution. FGM also constitutes torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment under international jurisprudence and legal doctrine, including numerous decisions from UN treaty bodies, the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, and the European Court of Human Rights (see e.g. here, here, here and here).
FGM and refugee status in Greece: The case of Sierra Leone
In Greece, during the first half of 2025, the recognition rate for asylum applicants from Sierra Leone who were granted refugee status by the Asylum Service stood at 34%. At the same time, Sierra Leone ranked fourth among the main countries of origin of people lodging appeals against first-instance rejection decisions issued by the Asylum Service.
Sierra Leone has one of the highest FGM prevalence rates in Africa. According to UNICEF, it ranks fourth among the ten countries where FGM is most widespread.
Approximately nine out of ten girls and women in Sierra Leone have been subjected to FGM. Girls experience the brutality of this practice from a very young age, and in some cases even as infants. To this day, Sierra Leonean law does not prohibit or criminalise any practice related to female genital mutilation.
As recognised by the Appeals Committees in the cases of Laura* and Mariatu*, when assessing claims by FGM survivors, the Greek authorities must recognise that female genital mutilation causes permanent and irreversible physical and psychological harm, i.e. a harm of a lasting nature, which constitutes a violation of the human rights of women and girls, an extreme form of gender-based discrimination and violence, and unequivocally amounts to persecution within the meaning of the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention.
Protecting survivors of such extreme violence is the duty of any democratic state: to safeguard their right to liberty and bodily integrity, and to restore their right to live with dignity and basic safety.
* The names have been changed to protect safety and privacy.