Cops ‘assessing’ Sir Mo Farah’s bombshell revelation he was trafficked into Britain as a child
POLICE are “assessing” bombshell claims made by Sir Mo Farah that he was trafficked into the UK as a child and forced to work as a servant. The Met hinted that “specialist officers” could open up a probe into the Olympic hero’s modern slavery allegations. In a statement the force said: “We are aware of […]
POLICE are “assessing” bombshell claims made by Sir Mo Farah that he was trafficked into the UK as a child and forced to work as a servant.
The Met hinted that “specialist officers” could open up a probe into the Olympic hero’s modern slavery allegations.
In a statement the force said: “We are aware of reports in the media concerning Sir Mo Farah.
“No reports have been made to the MPS (the Metropolitan Police Service) at this time.
“Specialist officers are currently assessing the available information.”
It comes as Sir Mo, 39, told a BBC documentary that he was trafficked into the UK when he was around eight-years-old and forced to work as a domestic slave for a mystery woman.
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He revealed he was forced to change cook, clean and change nappies for several years after being brought to London from Somaliland using fake documents.
He also revealed on The Real Mo Farah programme that he used the identity of another Mohamed Farah, while Sir Mo’s real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
On Tuesday the Home Office said they will not punish Sir Mo over the lie, while Downing Street said there would “absolutely not” be any action taken against the champion athlete.
The PM’s official spokesman said: “Sir Mo Farah is a sporting hero, he’s an inspiration to people across the country.
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“It’s a shocking reminder of the horrors that people face when they are trafficked and we must continue to clamp down on these criminals who take advantage of vulnerable people.”
In the film, which aired this week, Sir Mo cries as he reveals: “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. I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.
“To be able to face it and talk about the facts, how it happened, why it happened, it’s tough. The truth is I’m not who you think I am. And now whatever the cost, I need to tell my real story.”
Usually, citizenship can be stripped if an applicant gave “false information or concealed information concerning their identity, for example by using a false name” or used someone else’s identity.
But given Sir Mo’s age at the time, he falls under Home Office guidance to assume a child is not complicit in gaining citizenship by deception.
This means Sir Mo had no power or control over being trafficked illegally into the UK and was also under the age of criminal responsibility in Britain – ten – at the time.
Sir Mo previously claimed to have joined his dad in Britain but he was killed in the Somalian civil war.
The 2012 Olympics legend, knighted five years ago, had always insisted his father was an IT consultant called Muktar who was born and brought up in London.
He claimed his dad then moved to Mogadishu and met his mother before returning to the UK, followed by his son when the Somalian civil war deepened.
However, his father was actually a farmer called Abdi who was killed in the conflict when his son was four. His mother Aisha later sent him to neighbouring Djibouti for his safety.
She wanted him to be reunited with his twin brother Hassan. Instead one of his own relatives may have helped to illegally traffic him to the UK, through a mystery woman.
He said: “The hardest thing is admitting to myself that someone from my own family may have been involved in trafficking me.”
On arrival, aged eight, she told him he was now called Mo Farah and had to look after her family in return for being fed.
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However, the long-distance running icon – married to Tania, with nine-year-old twin girls Aisha and Amani plus son Hussein, six — was deeply unhappy.
He finally plucked up the courage to tell his schoolteachers, and social services intervened. He was eventually looked after by a Somalian woman, Kinsi, for seven years.
