Olympic star Mo Farah reveals he was taken to UK illegally using another child’s name
- The former track and field champion says his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin, and his father was killed in Somalia when he was four
- He claims a woman flew him out of Africa when he was nine, and he was then made to look after another family’s children in Britain
Former Olympic champion Mo Farah revealed in an article published on Monday he was brought to Britain illegally under the name of another child to work as a domestic servant.
Farah told the BBC that he was given the name Mohamed Farah by a woman who flew him to the UK from east African country Djibouti when he was aged nine.
The 39-year-old, whose father was killed in Somalia when he was four, said his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and claimed he was made to look after another family’s children in Britain.
“The truth is I’m not who you think I am,” he said as part of a documentary to be aired on Wednesday. “Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name or it’s not the reality.
“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.
“When I was four my dad was killed in the civil war, you know as a family we were torn apart. I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.”