{"id":883028,"date":"2026-04-09T19:25:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/883028\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:25:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:25:32","slug":"mo-farah-treated-like-slave-as-he-was-trafficked-to-england-and-given-false-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/883028\/","title":{"rendered":"Mo Farah ‘treated like slave’ as he was trafficked to England and given false identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2022, the Olympian – who is currently on I’m A Celeb: All Stars – heartbreakingly revealed that he’d been hiding a lifelong secret<\/p>\n

Zara Zubeidi<\/strong> Deputy Showbiz Editor<\/p>\n

20:00, 09 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"Sir<\/p>\n

Sir Mo Farah taking part in Tipped Over The Edge on I’m A Celeb(Image: ITV\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m A Celeb star Sir Mo Farah<\/a> shared his harrowing tale of being \u2018treated like a slave\u2019 after he was trafficked to England<\/a> at the age of just nine. In 2022, the Olympian \u2013 who is currently starring on the All Stars series<\/a> filmed in South Africa \u2013 shocked the world<\/a> by revealing his lifelong secret.<\/p>\n

The athlete was trafficked as a child and brought into the country illegally to work as a servant doing cleaning and childcare. Mo’s real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and he was brought from Somalia to the UK under a false identity.<\/p>\n

His mum was so desperate when his dad was killed during the Somali civil war in the late 1980s that Mo and his twin brother Hassan were sent away to live with an uncle in neighbouring Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: I’m A Celeb’s Gemma Collins fires back at co-star in tense moment<\/a>READ MORE: I’m A Celebrity fans warn Amanda Holden will be ‘mortified’ over intimate detail<\/a>\"The<\/p>\n

The athlete was trafficked as a child and brought into the country illegally to work as a servant<\/p>\n

Mo was then brought to Britain instead of the real Mohamed Farah, who still lives in Somalia and has never been to the UK.<\/p>\n

“There’s something about me you don’t know. A secret I’ve been hiding since I was a child,” revealed the athlete in BBC<\/strong> <\/a>documentary, The Real Mo Farah. Sir Mo admitted he was unsure if going public with the truth would put his British citizenship in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

He said: “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. As a family we were torn apart. I feel like I’ve always had that private thing where I could never be me and tell what’s really happened.”<\/p>\n

After hiding the truth for 30 years, Mo said he wanted to “feel normal” rather than “holding on to something”. He was brought to the UK using false documents and was put to work in domestic servitude for a family with younger children. The woman who brought him in, in 1993, pretended to be his mum as he travelled.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Olympian was reunited with his mother(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

He realised he had taken someone’s place when the man meeting them at the airport wondered where his real son was. Sir Mo said: “He was her husband and their family name was Farah. He was waiting for [her] and his oldest son Mohamed.”<\/p>\n

When they got to the house, the woman destroyed the contact details Mo had for his only UK relative. “At that moment I knew I was in trouble,” said the athlete.<\/p>\n

The woman threatened him to stop him telling anyone the truth. Sir Mo said: “If I wanted food in my mouth my job was to look after those kids, shower them, cook for them, clean for them, and she said, ‘If you ever wanna see your family again, don’t say anything.’ Often I would just lock myself in the bathroom and cry.”<\/p>\n

Having been kept from school for two years, he was eventually allowed to attend Feltham Community College in South West London when he was 11. He struggled with speaking English and his form tutor Sarah Rennie remembers his “incredible behaviour difficulties”.<\/p>\n

She added: “We needed to speak to somebody, but Mo’s family never turned up. He was unkempt, uncared for and we were worried.”<\/p>\n

Sir Mo said he was “scared” and coped in the only way he could \u2013 by getting outside and running. In PE teacher Alan Watkinson, Mo finally found someone he could trust.<\/p>\n

\"Sir<\/p>\n

Sir Mo opened up about his past on a BBC documentary(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Alan said: “Mo told me he wasn\u2019t the son of the person he was living with \u2013 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.”<\/p>\n

Social services were involved and Mo got a lucky break \u2013 Kinsi, the mum of a Somali schoolfriend, agreed to take him in. He lived with the family, happily, for seven years. It turned out Kinsi was the sister of the man who met Mo at the airport \u2013 the real Mohamed Farah’s dad.<\/p>\n

Alan recalled this time as heralding a “remarkable transformation”, adding: “We’d had good runners before but the progress from there was stratospheric.”<\/p>\n

At 14, when Mo was selected to compete for English schools in Latvia, it became clear he did not have the right documentation to travel abroad. Alan set about getting him British citizenship.<\/p>\n

Sir Mo said he doesn’t want to get his former teacher into trouble, but Alan is bullish. He said: “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.”<\/p>\n

But deciding to take legal advice, Sir Mo was shocked to learn his application for British citizenship was ‘obtained by fraud or misrepresentation’ in the eyes of the law, which meant his British nationality could be taken away.<\/p>\n

Mo said in his 2013 autobiography \u2013 Twin Ambitions \u2013 that he was born in Mogadishu, in Somalia, and came to the UK as a youngster with his mum and two of his brothers to live with his dad.<\/p>\n

\"Sir<\/p>\n

Sir Mo with his twin brother Hassan(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sir Mo’s wife Tania, who met him at school, said she only learned the full truth as they prepared to marry in 2010. She said she was “gobsmacked”. Tania adds the big question \u2013 is why he was switched for the real Mohamed.<\/p>\n

After sharing his secret, Mo, who gave one of his sons his own real name Hussein, travelled to Somaliland to visit his mum, Aisha, in his quest for answers. The pair got back in touch after she sent him her phone number when he was a teenager. Aisha had spent years not knowing Mo had been taken to live in the UK. His dad, Abdi, was killed by shrapnel from a bazooka while tending his cattle.<\/p>\n

Aisha told Mo: “We all thought we were dying. ‘Boom, boom, boom’ was all we heard. I sent you to your uncle so you could have something.”<\/p>\n

She claimed to have no idea why he ended up in the UK, saying: “No one told me. I lost contact with you. We didn’t have phones. There was nothing here. The land was devastated.”<\/p>\n

Mo was also reunited with his twin brother, Hassan, who is believed to still live in Somalia and works as a telecoms engineer.<\/p>\n

\"Sir<\/p>\n

Sir Mo’s wife Tania, who met him at school, said she only learned the full truth as they prepared to marry in 2010(Image: WireImage)<\/p>\n

\"Hassan<\/p>\n

Hassan is believed to still live in Somalia and works as a telecoms engineer(Image: Daily Record)<\/p>\n

Hassan previously said: \u201cWhen Mo was sent away I was left with an empty space in my heart. That space has never been filled, but he is still somewhere in my heart and I know I am in his.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many Somali families we were torn apart by war. In my case it felt more tragic than most. I feel I lost the other half of myself, my twin brother. These days we are all still close, despite the difficulties of travel and communications in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sir Mo visited the shack he lived in with his uncle in Djibouti and said: “The hardest thing is admitting to myself that someone from my own family may have been involved in trafficking me.”<\/p>\n

Sir Mo said: “What really saved me… was I could run.” He won Olympic gold in 2012 in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres, and repeated the double at Rio in 2016. He said he lied about his past to protect himself, adding he has only recently realised it is okay to reveal the truth.<\/p>\n

Mo has since admitted he’s had “incredible” support since sharing he was trafficked into the UK, previously telling The Mirror<\/a>: “For me, it was incredible to let that out and to have the support of the nation and so many messages coming through and saying ‘Thank you for sharing that, you changed my life’, that’s what keeps me going.<\/p>\n

“It keeps me grounded and it wasn’t a nice thing but how much support and how many people have been coming up and from charities and other people, it’s been incredible.”<\/p>\n

The Olympian continued: “I was lucky to have that support from my family and my kids but that was my story and hopefully there are people out there who will help and come forward and talk about it. It’s not an easy thing but I’m glad it’s been well received and I want to say thank you to everyone who’s supported and been behind me.”<\/p>\n

If you think that someone could be a victim of modern slavery or human trafficking, you should not confront them yourself, this could cause a scene and put them at risk of further harm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead, you should inform the relevant authorities. There are several ways that you can inform authorities in the UK, you could:<\/strong><\/p>\n