The Real Mo Farah: Raising awareness for child trafficking and slavery
Sir Mo Farah reveals he was a victim of child trafficking and slavery in new BBC documentary in the hope of challenging public perception
Trafficked children have been found in every single area of the UK. In 2021, there was a 27% increase in the number of modern slavery offences involving a child. This week, BBC documentary The Real Mo Farah told the moving story of how the athlete was illegally brought to the UK at the age of nine and forced to work as a domestic servant. Sir Mo Farah hopes that telling his story will challenge the public’s perception of trafficking and slavery.
The Office for National Statistics believes that changes in police recording practices and the coronavirus pandemic are likely to have affected the number of child victims identified in recent years. So, it’s important that we are able to recognise the signs of a child who is potentially a victim of modern slavery.
Children are trafficked for a number of purposes including forced labour, criminal activity, sexual exploitation, and domestic servitude. According to ECPAT (Every Child Protected Against Slavery), domestic servitude involves an individual being exploited in a private household, where their movements are restricted, and they are forced to perform tasks such as childcare and housekeeping over long hours. On Wednesday night, Olympic runner Sir Mo Farah shared his story of how he became a domestic slave, as a child, in the UK.
Previously, Mo had stated that he came to the UK from Somalia as a refugee with his parents in 1993. He has now revealed that, in actuality, his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and he travelled to UK with a woman he had never met under the illusion that he would be going to live with relatives. His father, Abdi, was in fact killed by gunfire when Mo was four years old, and his mother, Aisha, thought that she was sending her son to live with his uncle in Djibouti as a way of helping him escape the war in Somalia.
When arriving in the UK, the child was instructed to say his name was Mohammed Farah. He was then taken to a run-down block of flats in Hounslow, West London, where he was forced to perform household chores and take care of younger children in order to receive food. Mo said that he “wasn’t treated as part of the family, [I] was always that kid that did everything, more like someone who works for you”. He was warned that if he told anyone the truth, he would never see his real family again. Mo said, “I would lock myself in the bathroom and cry”.
At the age of 12, despite speaking little English, Mo was allowed to enrol at Feltham Community College. He struggled to know what to say and how to behave. His school reports described him as disruptive, and emotionally and culturally alienated.
Mo’s teachers became increasingly concerned about his home life due to his behaviour in the classroom and how he would “come into school unkempt and uncared for”.
Eventually, with the support of another Somalian child, Mo confided in his PE teacher, Alan Watkinson. Mo revealed that he was brought to the UK with a different identity to do jobs and chores at home. When describing how opening up felt, Mo said “I was scared. But I couldn’t go back there. I couldn’t put up with this anymore…I wasn’t concerned about my name or anything. I was more concerned about my own safety and me being free.”
Mo was then taken in by a friend’s mother, who took care of him for seven years. Mo said, “I was happy there”.
After gaining newfound freedom, Mo began to excel at running. But in order to compete internationally, he required legal documentation. With the help of Mr Watkinson, after a lengthy process, the runner was granted British citizenship in July 2000 under the name Mohamed Farah.
In the documentary, we witnessed legal experts advise Mo that, as his real name is Hussain, technically his British nationality was obtained by fraud. This means that the government is entitled to remove his nationality. However, the Home Office has since stated that it will not action to dispute Mo’s citizenship as trafficked children are not considered to be complicit in gaining fraudulent citizenship.
As the documentary progresses, Mo describes how when working in a restaurant, a woman approached him and gave him a tape which contained a recorded message by his biological mother, Aisha. The tape had a phone number written on the side which enabled Mo to get in contact with his mother. Aisha said that the “excitement and joy” of first phone call from her son made her “forget everything that had happened”.
Towards the end, we see the runner take his son, Hussain, to Somaliland to meet the family and discuss how Mo became a victim of child domestic servitude.
Mo wants the new BBC documentary to raise awareness. He says that he had “no idea that there were so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did”.
The NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) states that identifying child victims can be difficult, but there are signs to look out for. These signs include having to do excessive housework, rarely leaving the house, lack of legal documents, reluctance to give personal details and not having a good quality relationship with their adult carers.
Just being alert and aware could help end a child’s suffering. If you think a child is in immediate danger, then contact the police. But if they are not in immediate danger then contact your local child protection services or the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000.