Four-time Olympic gold medalist, Mo Farah has revealed that he was trafficked into the UK as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant.
The long-distance running legend reportedly made the revelation in a new documentary by the BBC.
It was stated that in the documentary, Farah disclosed that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and that he was born in Somaliland.
He said, “Despite what I said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK”.
Farah averred that the family was “torn apart” after his father was killed in the civil war when he was just four years old.
It could be recalled that Somaliland declared independence in 1991 when it broke away from war-torn Somalia, but has never been recognized as a sovereign state.
In a clip of the interview, Farah said “I was separated from my mother and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah”.
He further revealed that he was either eight or nine years old when he was flown to the UK by a woman he’d never met before.
He continued that upon arrival, he was forced to “do housework and childcare.”
Delineating on his ordeal, he said several years later, he was finally allowed to enrol in school, where he confided in a PE teacher about his situation. The teacher contacted social services and Farah moved in with a Somali foster family.
The emotional Farah said, “I still missed my real family, but from that moment everything got better”.
In his words, the legend, who was granted British citizenship in 2000, averred that running saved him from a life in servitude.
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