Sir Mo Farah reveals he was trafficked to the UK as a child

By Ashitha Nagesh, BBC News

Sir Mo Farah was brought to the UK illegally as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant, he has revealed.

The Olympic star has told the BBC he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him over from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.

He was flown over from the East African country aged nine by a woman he had never met, and then made to look after another family’s children, he says.

“For years I just kept blocking it out,” the Team GB athlete says.

“But you can only block it out for so long.”

The long-distance runner has previously said he came to the UK from Somalia with his parents as a refugee.

But in a documentary by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, seen by BBC News and airing on Wednesday, he says his parents have never been to the UK – his mother and two brothers live on their family farm in the breakaway state of Somaliland.

Learn more about Farah’s plight.

Although most people are familiar with historical slavery in America, many are less familiar with modern forms, including human trafficking.

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