Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah has revealed that as a child he was a victim of human trafficking and forced to work as a domestic worker. The 39-year-old Briton does so in a BBC documentary that will be broadcast on Wednesday.
Sir Mo Farah is one of the greatest athletes ever and was born in Somalia. Until now he told that he had come to England with his parents as a refugee, but that story is not true. At the age of 9 he was illegally brought to the UK where he was forced to work for a family.
When Farah was 4 years old, his father was killed in gun battles in Somaliland, which declared (never recognized) independence in 1991. His mother and two brothers still live on a farm in Somaliland.
Pushing is no longer possible
When Farah was 8 or 9 he was placed with a family in Djibouti. From there he was brought to the United Kingdom by a woman he did not know. There he had to take care of the children of a family. “For years I’ve tried to suppress that, but I can’t anymore,” Farah told the BBC. “A woman I didn’t know and had no connection with gave me the name Mo Farah. On the plane, she gave me false travel documents, which had the name Mohamed Farah next to my photo.” His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
When he arrived in London, Farah had another piece of paper with his family’s contact details with him, but it was torn to pieces before his eyes and thrown away by the woman who had taken him away in Africa. “I had to do household chores and watch the children if I wanted something to eat. If I said anything to anyone, “I would never see my family again,” I was told. I often locked myself in the bathroom to cry.”
Sports as the only language
The first two years in England Farah did not go to school. It wasn’t until he was 12 that he was taken to school, where he was told he was a Somali refugee. Teachers of that time remember an unkempt boy who spoke bad English. It was only on the track that young Farah seemed to come to life. “The only language he seemed to understand was sports,” recalls his former PE teacher. “It was the only thing I could do to get out of that situation: run away,” Farah says about it now.
It’s up to that gym teacher – Mr. Watkinson – that Farah is ultimately telling the truth and his real identity. The teacher contacts social services and Farah is taken in by another Somali family. “Everything got better from then on. There was a lot of pressure off my shoulders, the real Mo came out,” said the now 39-year-old athlete. With the help of the same Watkinson, Farah received his citizenship in 2000.
Decrease nationality
This could lead to problems for refugees in general. Because – as Farah’s lawyer reveals in the documentary – “technically, he obtained his nationality on the basis of fraud or misrepresentation.” And then the government can, in principle, take away that nationality.
“But that chance in Farah’s case is very small,” emphasizes lawyer Alan Briddock. “The bottom line is that human trafficking consists of transporting people for the purpose of exploitation. He was forced to work as a domestic helper and as a nanny for small children. And that’s why he lied about his real name. Those things reduce the risk that his nationality will be taken away.”
To conclude, Farah says he wanted to tell his story to challenge public perception of human trafficking and slavery. “I have no idea how many people have experienced the same thing. I was just lucky, walking saved me.”
Mo Farah won gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in 2012 and 2016 and collected six world titles at those distances.