THE most successful British track and field athlete in modern Olympic history and one of the world’s most successful male distance runners in history, in a revealing interview with the BBC opened up about his real name while sharing with the public and his shocking life story.
Sir Mo Fara entered the UK illegally when he was a child and was forced to work as a domestic helper, as he revealed, while stating in BBC that he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who airlifted him from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
The sensational story of the Olympic gold medalist
The Olympic star was flown in from the east African country to nine years old with a woman he had never met and was then forced to look after another family’s children, the BBC reports.
“For years I kept hiding it,” says the Team GB athlete. “But you can’t hide it for long.”
The long-distance runner has previously said he came to the UK from Somalia with his parents as a refugee. But in a recently aired BBC and Red Bull Studios documentary, he says that his parents have never come to the UK -his mother and two siblings live on their family farm in her breakaway state Somalilandwhich declared its independence in 1991, but is not recognized internationally. His father, Abdi, was killed by stray fire when Mo was four years oldduring civil violence in Somalia.
Sir Mo says he was about eight or nine years old when he was taken from his home to stay with his family in Djibouti. He was then flown to the UK by a woman he had never met and had no relationship with.
She told him that they would take him to Europe to live with relatives there – something he says he was “excited about”. “I had never been on a plane before,” he says.
His wife told him to say his name was Mohammed. He says he had with her fake travel documents that showed his photo next to the name “Mohammed Farah”.
When they arrived in the UK, the woman took him to her flat in Hounslow, west Londonand took him a piece of paper with his relatives’ contact information.
“Right in front of me, he tore it up and put it in the trash. At that moment I knew I had messed up“, says.
The Olympic gold medalist says he had to do housework and look after the children “if I wanted food in my mouth”, with the mystery woman blackmailing him by saying “If you ever want to see your family again, don’t say anything”. “I often locked myself in the bathroom and cried,” she says.
The first contact with school and sports
In the early years the family did not allow him to go to school, but when he was approx 12 years old enrolled in 7th grade at Feltham Community Collegewhile staff were informed that Mo Farah was a refugee from Somalia.
His former teacher Sarah Rennie tells the BBC that he came to school “unkempt and unprotected”, spoke little English and was an “emotionally and culturally alienated” child, adding that the people who claimed to be his parents were not involved in no parents evening.
Sir Mo’s physical education teacher, Alan Watkinson, noticed a transformation in the young boy when he entered track and field. “The only language he seemed to understand was the language of gymnastics and sports,” she says.
The track and field champion says sports have been a lifeline for himas “the only thing I could do to escape from her [την κατάσταση διαβίωσης] was to get out and run.” He eventually confided in Mr. Watkinson his true identity, where he came from, and the family he was being forced to work for.
The real Mo
The physical education teacher contacted social services and helped get Mo placed with another Somali family. “I still missed my real family, but from that moment everything got better,” he says.
“I felt like a lot of things were lifted off my shoulders and I felt like myself. That’s when Mo came out – the real Mo.”
Mo Farah began to make a name for himself as an athlete and at the age of 14 was invited to compete for English schools in a match in Latvia -but he had no travel documents.
Mr Watkinson helped him apply for British citizenship under the name of Mohamed Farah, which was granted to him in July 2000.
In the documentary, lawyer Alan Briddock tells Farah that his citizenship was technically “obtained by fraud or false representation.” Legally, the government can strip a person of their British citizenship if their citizenship was obtained fraudulently, the BBC reports.
However, Mr Briddock explains that the risk of this happening in the case of the gold medalist is low.
“Basically, the definition of human trafficking is transportation for the purpose of exploitation,” she tells Sir Mo. “In your case, you were forced as a very young child yourself to take care of small children and be a domestic servant. And then you told the proper authorities, “that’s not my name.” All of this together reduces the risk that the Home Office will strip you of your citizenship.”
Running as a lifeline
THE Mo Fara explains to the BBC that he wants to tell his story to challenge public perceptions of human trafficking and slavery. “I had no idea there were so many people going through exactly the same thing as me. That shows how lucky I was.”
“What really saved me, what made me different, was that I could run.”
Source: News Beast
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