Mo Farah has revealed that he was brought to the U.K through illegal means when he was a child and forced to work as a domestic servant. The Olympic champion disclosed in an interview with BBC saying that the individuals that flew him from Djibouti gave him the name, Mohamed Farah but that his actual name was Hussein Abdi Kahin.
He went to reveal that it was a strange lady that he had never met before in his life that transported him to the East African Country to look after the kids of another family when he was nine.
In the documentary, he confessed that before his trafficking, his parents had never set foot in the U.K; he had been staying at the family farm in Somaliland with his mum and two brothers. When Farah arrived in the U.K, the woman took him to her flat in Hounslow, west London, and collected the piece of paper on which his relatives’ contact details were written.
“Right in front of me, she tore it up and threw it away in the trash, that was the moment I knew I was in trouble” he stated. Farah was in charge of the housework and childcare if he wanted to “have food to eat”. The woman threatened that he wouldn’t see his family again unless he shut his mouth and did not say a word.
Farah later revealed his real identity, background, and family to his PE teacher, Alan Watkinson. This was when social services were contacted and Farah was fostered by another Somalia family. With the abuse and neglect lifted off his shoulders, Farah made a name for himself as an athlete and at age 14, he was invited to compete for English schools at a race held in Latvia.
Farah confessed that he was telling his story so that the general public will be made aware of the challenges of Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery. The woman trafficker has been approached for comments but she is yet to respond.
