Beloved four-time U.K. Olympic gold medalist, Mo Farah, revealed in an interview that he was a victim of human trafficking when he was a child.
In a documentary, “The Real Mo Farah,” produced by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, Farah said he was illegally taken from his family and brought to the U.K. when he was eight or nine years old to live a life of servitude, reported the Associated Press.
Farah, who says his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin, said a woman used the fake name Mohammed Farah in forged travel documents to bring him to a U.K. home where he was forced to care for other children, the AP reported. (RELATED: Global Sports Authority Incentivizes Child Sex Changes With New Transgender Policy)
Through this documentary I have been able to address and learn more about what happened in my childhood and how I came to the UK. I’m really proud of it and hope you will tune into @BBC at 9pm on Weds to watch. pic.twitter.com/rqZe41gFm8
— Sir Mo Farah (@Mo_Farah) July 11, 2022
The Olympian said he was given a list of contacts on a piece of paper and was told he would leave the east African nation of Djibouti to live with relatives in Europe, according to the AP.
“The lady took it off me and right in front of me ripped them up and put it in the bin,” Farah said, according to the AP. “And at that moment I knew I was in trouble.”
He said the woman brought him to London and forced him to care for her children, adding that he wasn’t permitted to go to school until he was 12, reported the AP.
“I wasn’t treated as part of the family,” said Farah, according to the outlet. “If I wanted food in my mouth, my job was to look after those kids — shower them, cook for them, clean for them.”
Farah lived as a servant in the London apartment until he told his physical education teacher, who contacted local officials for help, according to the AP. He said his life changed after local officials sent him to live with a Somali family as a foster child, the AP reported.
“I still missed my real family, but from that moment everything got better,” Farah said, according to the outlet. “I felt like a lot of stuff was lifted off my shoulders, and I felt like me.”
Farah, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017, said he didn’t talk about being a human trafficking victim because he was afraid of being deported, according to the AP. He went public with his childhood experience to bring awareness to the issue of human trafficking.
“I had no idea there was so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did,” he said, reported the AP. “It just shows how lucky I was.”
The U.K. National Crime Agency (Home Office) reported that more than 10,000 people in 2020 were sent to officials as potential victims of modern slavery, up almost 8,000 people from 2014, reported the AP.