Quacks thrive on the fears of immigrants

CHANNEL 4 recently ran a harrowing documentary on the brutal practice of female circumcision in parts of Africa, with the attendant trauma of one young woman who was forced to undergo the procedure by her own mother. It was sexual assault to the nth degree and led to her estrangement from her family.

The removal of the clitoris is more akin to the removal of the whole penis in a boy, and not just the foreskin a practice which in itself can lead to tragic complications as Terry Prone rightly points out in her column (Irish Examiner, August 25).

But the question is not just the cultural or religious tension sometimes inherent in different ethnic values, but the plight of immigrants everywhere when they feel threatened by the very authorities who should be there to protect them (irrespective of their immigrant status or nationality).