Pakistanis are 3 % of UK population and 33 % of birth defects

 

 

In some British Pakistani families, marriage within the family or extended kinship group has been practised for generations and first cousin couples can trace numerous additional blood ties in their family history. They may therefore share more than 12.5 per cent of their genetic material and have a higher risk for recessive problems in their children than if they were first cousins without any additional connections by blood. This is the most likely explanation for the observation that, in some sections of the British Pakistani population, the risk of death or serious disability in children may be as high as 10 per cent.