The champion boxer without a country to fight for
Bilal Fawaz was trafficked to the UK from Nigeria as a teenager, and went on to become a boxing champion. But without a passport he can't make it to the top of his game.
Bilal Fawaz was just 14 when he was trafficked to the UK from Nigeria. Without stability or family support he survived domestic slavery and went on to become an English boxing champion. He was even tipped to fight for Britain at the 2012 Olympics, but a long legal battle to establish his nationality - a country to fight for - derailed his rise to the top.
While husband and wife Timofey Yuriev and Melissa Kho were walking their dog in New York state, they came across two other dogs that had fallen through the ice into a freezing lake. Luckily Timofey's Siberian grandfather and nuclear physicist mother had given him the skills necessary for this rescue. This interview was first broadcast in May 2019.
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(Photo: Bilal Fawaz. Credit: Tom Jenkins/Getty Images)
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- Tue 26 Apr 202211:06GMTBBC World Service
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