Mo Farah, the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic gold medals, has revealed he was trafficked to the UK three decades ago as a child under a false name.
The astonishing revelation dramatically rewrites the life story of Farah, one of Britain’s most famous sports athletes. It also raises questions about his citizenship status in a country where wars over immigration have become a polarizing issue in domestic politics in recent years.
“Most people know me by the name Mo Farah, but that’s not my name, or that’s not the reality,” he said in a statement. BBC documentary scheduled for release on Wednesday.
“The real story is that I was born in Somaliland, in the north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents have never lived in the UK,” Farah said in the documentary footage released on Monday.
Farah, 39, previously said he came to Britain with his parents for asylum.
He said he was putting his citizenship at risk by sharing his story, but the British government was quick to signal that he need not fear. An Interior Department spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday that no action would be taken against Farah and that “the other suggestion is false.”
According to government guidelines, children must not be complicit in fraud or misrepresentation by their parents or guardians.
An attorney who spoke to Farah in the documentary, Alan Briddock, said that Farah is unlikely to lose her citizenship because of being trafficked as a child and has shared her story with the relevant authorities. .
In the documentary, Farah said he was separated from his family after his father was killed during the civil war in Somalia. He was brought to England at the age of 9 with a woman under the name of another child, Mohamed Farah. He thought he was going to stay with relatives, but was forced to become a slave to the family.
“I had all the contact details of my relatives and when we got to her house the lady took it off and right in front of me ripped them off and put them in the bin and at that moment I knew I’m in trouble,” he said.
“If I want food in my mouth, my job is to take care of those kids, wash them, cook for them, clean for them,” Farah said. “And she said, ‘If you want to see your family again, don’t say anything. If you say anything, they will take you away. ‘”
Years later, upon entering school, Farah told her PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, about her true identity. He was placed in the care of a friend’s mother.
In July 2000, with the help of Watkinson, Farah was naturalized as a British citizen under the name Mohamed Farah, according to the BBC. He would go on to become one of Britain’s greatest sporting heroes.
Farah, a distance runner, won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics, in the 5,000 meter and 10,000 meter races. He repeated his success as champion in both races four years later at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, winning a gold medal though dramatic half-fall through the 10,000 won.
Farah was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017.
He has competed in major marathons since retiring from athletics in 2017, and set a national record after winning the 2018 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2 hours 5 minutes 11 seconds.
Farah recently announced that he will be running this year’s London Marathon on October 2, his first marathon since 2019.
Isabella Kwai contributed reporting from London.
