Mohamed Farah, the king of athletics, revealed in a documentary that he had arrived in the UK illegally with a false identity. He also said that he was later forced to work as a maid for a family.
“The truth is I’m not what you think I am. Most people know me as Mo Farah but it’s not true. I was separated from my mother and was brought to the UK illegally under the name of another boy named Mo Farah,” the four-time Olympic gold medalist explained, in an interview It will be shown by the BBC.
Farah, now 39, said in the interview that Mohammed Farah was named 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 10,000 meters races at the 2012 London Olympics and Rio 2016, revealed that his real name is Hussein 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.
Farah added, “The truth is that I was born in Somaliland, northern Somalia, with the name Hussain Abdi Kahin. Despite what I have said in the past, my parents did not live in the UK.”
“do not say anything”
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 father as a computer technician.
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.” “At that moment, I knew I was going to have problems,” the athlete said.
Farah, the first Briton to win four Olympic titles in track and field, said he was forced to clean the house and take care of other children in a British family if he wanted to “eat something”.
He was told, “If you want to see your family again, don’t say anything.” “I often lock myself in the bathroom and cry,” he said.
Confidence for the teacher
One day, he ends up revealing the truth to his physical education teacher, Alan Watkinson, who notices his mood swings while on the right track. Then he went to live in the house of a “friend” mother who “really took care of him”.
“The only language he seemed to understand was physical education and sports,” Alan Watkinson said.
“The only thing I could do to get out of this situation was to get out and run,” Farah said.
The professor later applied for the athlete’s British citizenship, which he finally obtained on July 25, 2000. Lawyers warned Muhammad Farah of the danger of having his British citizenship withdrawn after revealing “false statements”. The British Home Office announced, on Tuesday, that the Olympic champion will not be judged in the United Kingdom.
A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior confirmed to AFP that “no legal proceedings will be opened against Sir Mo Farah and that suggesting otherwise is incorrect.”
“We have to build a future where these things don’t exist anymore,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan, as the British government plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as part of its anti-immigration policy.
inspiration
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 an athlete,” he explained in 2007, a year after he won the silver medal in the 5,000m at the European Championships.
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 kids often asked me questions. And you always have an answer for everything, but you don’t have an answer for that. That’s the main reason I’m telling my story now, because I want to feel like a normal person. And not someone who is hiding something.”
Farah, who named her son Hussein in honor of his true identity, concluded, “I often think of the other Muhammad Farah, the boy who carries this identity on that plane, and I hope he is fine.”
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