“I didn’t realize there were so many individuals going through the same”- Sir Mo Farah recalls how he was abducted to the UK
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Mo Farah
Sir Mo Farah has admitted that he was taken to the UK illegally as a youngster and had to serve as a domestic servant.
The Olympic athlete revealed to the BBC that the people who flew him over from Djibouti gave him the name Mohamed Farah. Hussein Abdi Kahin is his true name.
He claims that when he was nine years old, a woman who he had never seen transported him over from an east African nation and forced him to care for another family’s children.
Team GB athlete: “For years I simply kept blocking it out. However, you can only ignore it for so long.” The distance runner earlier claimed that he and his parents fled Somalia for the UK.
His mother and two brothers reside on the family farm in the independent state of Somaliland, he claims in a BBC and Red Bull Studios documentary that was viewed by BBC News and will run on Wednesday.
The heartwarming story of Mo Farah:
When Sir Mo was four years old, his father, Abdi, was murdered by a stray gunshot during civil unrest in Somalia. Although Somaliland declared its independence in 1991, it is not recognized globally.
When he was pulled away from home to live with family in Djibouti, according to Sir Mo, he was between the ages of eight and nine. Then a woman he had never met and was unrelated to flew him to the UK.
He claims he was “happy” when she told him he was being sent to live with relatives in Europe. He claims, “I’d never been on an aircraft before.”
He was instructed to use his name, Mohamed, by the woman. He claims she was carrying forged travel paperwork bearing his picture and the name “Mohamed Farah.” Upon their arrival in the UK, the lady led him to her home in Hounslow, west London, and demanded a piece of paper from him that included the contact information for his family.
“She tore it up in front of me and threw it in the trash. I realized I was in trouble then”, he claims.
Alan Watkinson, Sir Mo’s PE instructor, observed a change in the young man as he entered the track. He claims that the only tongue he seemed to comprehend was the language of physical education and sports.
As “the only thing I could do to get away from this [living environment] was to get out and run,” Sir Mo claims that sport was a lifeline for him. At some point, he opened up to Mr. Watkinson about his real identity, his upbringing, and the family he was being made to work for.
Sir Mo, wants to share his experience to dispel misconceptions about human trafficking and slavery.
“I didn’t realize there were so many individuals going through the same situation as me. Just goes to illustrate how fortunate I was “. He claims, “I could sprint, and that was truly what saved me, what set me apart.”
The BBC has contacted the woman who brought Sir Mo to London but she has not answered.
Also Read: WATCH- A Manchester City fan chases Pep Guardiola down for a photograph while he was riding his bike
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Ujan Chakraborty
(1240 Articles Published)