Izuchukwu Okosi
Long distance runner Mo Farah was brought to the UK illegally as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant, the former 800m world champion has sensationally revealed.
The Olympic star revealed to the BBC he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him over from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHe was flown over from the East African country aged nine by a woman he had never met, and then made to look after another family’s children, he says.
“For years I just kept blocking it out,” the Team GB athlete says.
“But you can only block it out for so long.”
The long-distance runner has previously said he came to the UK from Somalia with his parents as a refugee.
But in a documentary by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, seen by BBC News and set to air on Wednesday, he says his parents have never been to the UK – his mother and two brothers live on their family farm in the breakaway state of Somaliland.
Sir Mo Farah received huge praise for the trafficking disclosure by so many of his fans.
His father, Abdi, was killed by stray gunfire when Sir Mo was four years old, in civil violence in Somalia. Somaliland declared independence in 1991 but is not internationally recognised.
Sir Mo says he was about eight or nine years old when he was taken from home to stay with family in Djibouti. He was then flown over to the UK by a woman he had never met and wasn’t related to.
She told him he was being taken to Europe to live with relatives there – something he says he was “excited” about. “I’d never been on a plane before,” he says.
Mo Farah who has been knighted by the Queen of England received huge praises for the trafficking disclosure by so many of his fans.
Meanwhile the Home Office in London has however revealed to Sky Sports that the African-born Briton will not be sanctioned or have his British citizenship taken away from him as he was only a little child when he made the illegal trip.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
