Britain’s most successful track athlete, Sir Mo Farah, has revealed he was trafficked into the United Kingdom as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant.
The four time Olympic champion was flown to the UK from the east African country, Djibouti, and given the stolen name Mohamed Farrah for fake travel documents– changed from his childhood name, Hussein Abdi Kahin.
The shocking news comes out of a new documentary by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, called The Real Mo Farah, which is set to air Wednesday.
In the past, Farah has said he arrived in the UK from Somalia as a refugee with his parents. Now that he’s a father, he says his children have motivated him to share his true story.
“I’ve been keeping it for so long,” says Farah in clips released from the documentary. “It’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that.”
His own father, Abdi, was killed when Farah was four years old, by stray gunfire in civil violence in Somalia. Today, his mother and two brothers live on their family farm in the breakaway state of Somaliland.
In the documentary, Farah shares that he was just eight or nine years old when he was taken from Somalia to Djibouti to stay with relatives. That’s where a woman he’d never met before told him she was taking him to Europe to live with relatives. The same woman was the one to give him fake travel documents and tell him to call himself Mohamed.
At first, Farah said he was excited to go and fly in a plane for the first time. It was when they reached the UK, however, when things started to become clear.
“I had all the contact details for my relative and once we got to her house, the lady took it off me and right in front of me, ripped them up and put it in the bin. At that moment, I knew I was in trouble,” says Farah.
He was told to do housework and childcare if he wanted to eat, and was threatened if he tried to speak out about his situation. Farah’s captors claimed to be his parents to outsiders and didn’t allow him to go to school until he was enrolled in Year 7 at 12 years old.
It was in his school’s physical education program that Farah was able to claim back some of his freedom. As a naturally talented runner, the athletics track became a lifeline.
“The only thing I could do to get away from this [living situation] was to get out and run,” he says.
At school, Farah also struggled to speak English and fit into his new environment both emotionally and culturally.
His PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, remarked that, “The only language he seemed to understand was the language of PE and sport.”
It was Watkinson who Farah eventually confided in about his situation and who contacted social services to help him get away from his traffickers. Things then got better when Farah became fostered by another Somali family.
“I felt like a lot of stuff was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like me. That’s when Mo came out– the real Mo,” says Farah.
Watkinson also helped Farah apply for British citizenship under the name Mohamed Farah, which was granted in July 2000.
Farah said he was putting this citizenship at risk by sharing the truth, and spoke to lawyer, Alan Briddock, in the film, about this concern. But Briddock said this was unlikely since he was trafficked and shared his story with relevant authorities.
“I don’t think I was ever ready to say anything,” says Farah. “Not because you want to lie, but because you’re protecting yourself.”
In the documentary, Farah learns from trafficking expert Kate Garbers that there are between 10,000 and 100,000 trafficking victims in the UK. He has come to realise that it’s okay to speak his truth and hopes his decision will help to challenge public perceptions of trafficking and slavery.
World Vision Australia reports that nearly 21 million people are trafficked for profit around the world today.
Looking back at Farah’s momentous sporting career as a multiple Olympic, World and European Champion distance runner who was even knighted in 2017 by Queen Elizabeth II, it’s impressive to see how far he has come.
“I had no idea there were so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did. It just shows how lucky I was,” he says.
“What really saved me, what made me different, was that I could run.”