Sir Mo Farah has revealed he was trafficked to the UK as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant in a new documentary. Watch a clip below.
The Olympic star said he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him to the UK from Djibouti and his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
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He was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia and he was flown over from the country in east Africa when he was about nine years old.
Farah's father, Abdi, was killed in a civil war when the future long-distance runner was four years old and he was later separated from his mother. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 but it is not recognised internationally.
He was about eight or nine years old when he was taken from his mother to stay with family in Djibouti. Farah was later flown to the UK by a woman he was not related to. She instructed him to say his name was Mohamed and he was provided with fake travel documents with his own photo next to a real person's name - "Mohamed Farah".
He was told he was being taken to Europe to live with relatives there and Farah shared he was 'excited' about traveling at the time because he had 'never been on a plane before'.
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Once they arrived in the UK, Farah was taken by the woman to a flat in Hounslow, West London. He had taken a piece of paper with his family's contact details on it, but the woman ripped it up in front of him.
"Right in front of me, she ripped it up and put it in the bin. At that moment, I knew I was in trouble," he recalls.
Farah says he was forced to do housework and childcare and shared that the woman told him: "If you ever want to see your family again, don't say anything."
He says in the documentary: "Often I would just lock myself in the bathroom and cry".
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Farah was not allowed to attend school in the first few years he lived in the UK, but when he was around 12 years old, he enrolled in a Year 7 class at Feltham Community College. Staff at the school were told Farah was a refugee from Somalia.
"For years I just kept blocking it out," the athlete shared.
"But you can only block it out for so long."
The Real Mo Farah airs on BBC One at 9:00pm on Wednesday 13 July.
Featured Image Credit: BBCTopics: TV And Film, News