Mo Farah says he was trafficked to the U.K. and forced into child labor
Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah says he was trafficked to the U.K. under a false name and forced into child labor, revealing stunning details about the painful path that culminated in him being awarded a knighthood.
"Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it's not my name — or, it's not the reality," Farah said in a new documentary about the track star.
"The real story is, I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin," he added.
Farah has previously said he came to the U.K. as a young child with his parents, fleeing the war in Somalia. But he now says his father died when Farah was four years old, and that he was soon separated from his mother and other relatives.
"I was brought into the U.K. illegally under the name of another child, called Mohammed Farah," he said. At the time, he was around 8 or 9 years old.
The documentary, made by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, includes footage of visa documents that Farah says were faked, bearing his photo and another child's name.
"I know I've taken someone else's place. And I do wonder, what is Mohammed doing now?" he said in the documentary, clips of which are posted on the BBC's website.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/12/1111002952/mo-farah-trafficked-child-labor