KEHINDE FAJOBI
British long distance runner and Olympic champion, Mo Farah has revealed that he was illegally trafficked to Britain under a false name as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant.
The four-time Olympic champion made the revelation in a BBC documentary “The Real Mo Farah”.
In the documentary, Farah said he was brought to the UK illegally from Djibouti and was given the name “Mohammed Farah” by the woman who brought him, whom he had never met or was related to.
He said he was brought at the age of eight or nine after he was taken from his home state of Somaliland–a breakaway state of Somalia–and taken to Djibouti from where he was flown to the UK.
Farah said, “Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name, or it’s not the reality.
“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.
“When I was four, my dad was killed in the civil war, you know as a family we were torn apart.
“I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.”
Mo Farah further revealed that the woman who trafficked him tore the paper with his family’s contact details and that was when he knew he was in trouble, he was made to look after the children of another family before he could eat.
Before speaking in the documentary, Farah was told that his British citizenship–which he acquired in 2000–could be revoked given that he had a false identity but the British Home Office said they were not taken any action against Farah.
Mo Farah won gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.