Susanna Reid appeared stunned as they discussed Sir Mo Farah's personal revelation on Good Morning Britain. The athlete made the shock revelation that he was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child.
Sir Mo, a four-time Olympic gold-medal winner who has also won six world titles and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, says his own children have motivated him to tell the truth and has done so in a new documentary, The Real Mo Farah, which airs on the BBC on Wednesday (July 13).
He previously claimed he had been born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and spent most of his early life in Djibouti. He said he had come to London when he was eight to join his father, speaking barely any English – a story he has now revealed to be untrue. In fact, Sir Mo's father was killed during the civil war in Somalia when he was four and he travelled to the UK with a woman he did not know.
He was forced to work for a family that was not his own as a child but eventually confided in his school PE teacher Alan Watkinson, who helped him apply for British citizenship. The process was completed on July 25, 2000.
Discussing the revelation on Tuesday morning's GMB (July 12), Susanna was horrified after an expert revealed there will be many more kids who faced the same fate as Sir Mo, one of the UK’s most high-profile and successful athletes. Susanna and her co-host Ed Balls were speaking with Patricia Durr, Chief Executive of ECPAT UK, at the time.
"Child trafficking is child abuse," Patricia said. "We need to keep that in mind. And it's a crime. The scale of the problem is increasing but we don't know how big it is, due to the way the data is collected."
When asked how common this situation is, Patricia replied: "The number of children being referred there as suspected victims of trafficking has increased year on year. The latest figures for 2021 we have is 5468, so Sir Mo's story is only the tip of the iceberg because he's only just realised himself, which is a very common thing."
Since he shared his story on Monday evening (July 11), Sir Mo has been hailed as "truly inspirational" and a "great Briton" after he revealed he was trafficked into the UK as a child. The new Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi was asked how it made him feel reading Sir Mo’s story.
The Tory leadership hopeful told BBC Breakfast: "Heartbroken, painful. I was very lucky that I had my parents with me when we fled Iraq. It was difficult, no doubt, I was 11 years old, I didn’t understand why we were fleeing Saddam Hussein, I knew he was a dictator, I knew he was bad.
"All I can say is I salute Mo Farah. What an amazing human being to go through that trauma in childhood, and to come through it and be such a great role model is truly inspirational – and exemplary."
Similarly, London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted his support for the Olympian. "Everything Sir Mo has survived proves he’s not only one of our greatest Olympians but a truly great Briton. @Mo_Farah thank you for sharing your story & shining a spotlight on these awful crimes. We must build a future where these tragic events are never repeated," he wrote.
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