Mo Farah reveals that he arrived in the UK with a false identity

Posted on 07/12/2022 08:41

(Credit: MARTIN BUREAU/AFP)

London, United Kingdom- Mohamed Farah, the king of the athletics track, who was awarded for his Olympic achievements by the Queen of England, revealed in a documentary that he arrived in the UK illegally with a false identity, and was later forced to work as a domestic servant for the family.

“The truth is, I’m not who you think I am. Most people know me as Mo Farah but that’s not true. I was separated from my mum and brought to the UK illegally under the name of another boy called Mo Farah,” explains the four-time Olympic gold medalist in An interview to be shown by the BBC on Wednesday.

Farah, now 39, narrates in the interview that his name was Mohamed Farah by a woman who forced him to travel to the United Kingdom, explaining that he would meet relatives from Djibouti, an East African country, when he was nine years old.

The athlete, who won the 5,000 and 10,000m races at the London 2012 Olympics and Rio 2016, reveals that his real name is Hossein Abdi Kahin. His father was killed in Somalia when he was four years old.

His mother and two brothers live in the breakaway region of Somaliland, which is not recognized by the international community.

– “do not say anything” –

“The truth is, I was born in Somaliland, northern Somalia, with the name Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK,” Farah adds.

So far, he said he was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and came to the UK in 1993, at the age of 10, with his mother and two brothers to join his computer technician father.

Upon arriving in the country, the woman who accompanied him took the paper containing the address of his relatives, “tore it up and threw it in the trash,” according to Farah. “At that moment, I knew I was going to have problems.”

Farah, the first Briton to win four Olympic titles in track and field, says he was forced to clean the house and look after other children in a British family if he wanted “something to eat”.

They told him: “If you want to see your family again, don’t say anything.”

“Many times, I would lock myself in the bathroom and cry,” he said.

– Teacher confidence –

One day, he ended up revealing the truth to his physical education teacher, Alan Watkinson, who noticed his mood swings when he was on the track. He then went to live with the mother of a “friend” whom he “really looked after”.

“The only language he seemed to understand was physical education and sports,” says Alan Watkinson. “The only thing I could have done to get away from this situation was to get out and run,” says Farah.

After that, the teacher applied for British citizenship for the athlete, which he finally received on July 25, 2000.

Lawyers have warned Mohamed Farah against risking having his British citizenship revoked after his “false statements” were revealed. But the British Home Office announced on Tuesday that the Olympic champion would not be tried in the UK.

A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior told AFP that “no legal proceedings will be opened against Sir Mo Farah and the suggestion otherwise is not true.”

“We must build a future where this kind of thing no longer exists,” said Labor Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, while the British government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of its anti-immigrant policy.

Farah returned to Somalia in 2003 and later set up a foundation with his wife to build wells and provide food and medical care in Africa.

“I realized I couldn’t live here, and that if I stayed I wouldn’t be the athlete I am,” he explained in 2007, a year after he won a silver in the 5000m at the European Championships.

Six-time world champion, he became a huge star in the UK, especially after the London 2012 Olympics double, which he repeated four years later in Rio. He then moved on to road racing, but with less success, although he won the famous Chicago Marathon in 2018.

The athlete explained that it was his four children who pressured him to reveal the truth about his past.

“I hid it for a long time, it was hard, because you didn’t want to face it and my children often asked me questions (…). And you always have an answer for everything, but not for this,” he explains.

“That’s the main reason I tell my story now,” he says, “because I want to feel like a normal person and not someone hiding something.”

Farah, who named her son Hussein in honor of her true identity, concludes: “I often think of the other Mohammed Farah, the boy whose identity I bore on that plane, and I hope he is well.”