Mo Farah revealed he was saved by a PE teacher after being illegally trafficked to the UK. The four-time Olympic champion has opened up on a shocking truth about his identity and how he arrived in the UK.
The Somali-born star disclosed he was born Hussein Abdi Kahin in Somaliland, and that he is an illegal immigrant, smuggled into the UK by traffickers in 1993 when he was just nine. After their father was tragically killed during the Somali civil war in the late 1980s, Mo and his twin brother Hassan were sent to live with an uncle in nearby Djibouti.
Mo was then brought to the UK instead of the man whose real name is Mohamed Farah, who still lives in Somalia and has never touched British shores. The 39-year-old’s story will be told in a BBC documentary set to air tomorrow, which includes when he was eventually allowed to attend Feltham Community College in South West London at the age of 11, having been prevented from attending school for two years.
While there he met PE teacher Alan Watkinson and Mo finally found someone he could not only confide in but had his best interests at heart. Alan says: "Mo told me he wasn’t the son of the person he was living with – that his name wasn’t Mohamed Farah, [and that] he was removed from his family, that he was given a new identity and brought here to do jobs and chores. That was quite shocking to hear."
Alan recalls this time as heralding a "remarkable transformation" for Farah, adding: "We’d had good runners before but the progress from there was stratospheric." At 14, Mo’s talent for running saw him selected to compete for English schools in Latvia, but he was initially unable to travel abroad as he did not have the right documentation.
In a grand gesture, Alan helped Mo secure British citizenship and showed Mo the box of documents he has kept since then. "We just bombarded them," he explains. Sir Mo says he doesn’t want to get his former teacher into trouble, but Alan is bullish.
He says: "When you went through the process of social services, you stayed as Mohamed Farah. To my mind, at that point, the state have recognised you as Mohamed Farah. I don’t think either I or the school did anything wrong.”
Despite the circumstances surrounding how he came to the UK almost three decades ago, the Home Office have stated 'no action' will be taken against the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history.
While the athlete was stunned to learn in the documentary he could potentially lose his British citizenship, the Home Office has reassured Sir Mo and fans as they told Mirror Online on Tuesday 'no action' would be taken. A spokesperson said: "No action whatsoever will be taken against Sir Mo."
