Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah revealed that he purportedly came to the UK as a child against his will and was forced to work as a domestic servant.
While speaking to BBC the Olympic star said that his real name was Hussein Abdi Kahin and that Mohamed Farah was given to him by the people who flew him from Djibouti.
According to Farah, a woman he had never met took him from Djibouti when he was nine years old, took him to the UK where she made him look after another family’s children.
She told him he was being taken to Europe to live with relatives there – something he says he was “excited” about. “I’d never been on a plane before,” he stated.
Moreover, the athlete stated that the woman instructed him to introduce himself as Mohamed. According to the athlete, she was carrying fake travel documents with his photo next to the name Mohamed Farah.
During his first few years in the UK, the family did not let him go to school. However, at around the age of 12, he enrolled in Year 7 at Feltham Community College.
“I’d often lock myself in the bathroom and cry,” he says.
Nonetheless, the staff at his school identified him as a Somalian refugee.
In addition, his PE teacher, Mr. Alan Watkinson, helped him in apply for British citizenship as Mohamed Farah, which he eventually received in July 2000.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Farah in a documentary by Alan Briddock that his nationality was technically obtained by fraud or misrepresentation. As such, the government can remove a person’s British nationality if their citizenship was obtained through fraud.
In addition, the olympic champion says he want to tell his story so as to change people’s views about human trafficking and slavery.
“I had no idea there was so many people who are going through exactly the same thing that I did. It just shows how lucky I was,” he says.
Furthermore, Sir Mo stated that what really saved him and made him different was that he could run.
