THE UK Home Office have stated ‘no action’ will be taken against Sir Mo Farah after he revealed he is an illegal immigrant who was smuggled into the UK aged nine
The Olympian, 39, shares his harrowing true story about his childhood and real name in an upcoming BBC documentary, the Real Mo Farah, set to air on Wednesday.
In the one-off special, Mo says he is prepared to share his real identity ‘whatever the cost’ after he was brought to the UK under a false identity to work as a servant.
But 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 on Tuesday ‘no action’ would be taken.
A spokesperson the British Mirror Online news portal: ‘No action whatsoever will be taken against Sir Mo.’
His P.E teacher Alan Watkinson set about getting him British citizenship and in the documentary shows Mo the box of documents he has kept since then. ‘We just bombarded them,’ he explains.
Later in the programme, Sir Mo is 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 have been taken away.
Mo’s journey to the UK began when his mother, Aisha, sent him and twin brother to Djibouti to live with an uncle during the height of the Somali civil war, which cost the life of his father, Abdi, who was killed by shrapnel from a bazooka while tending his cattle.
The woman who brought him in pretended to be his mother after using false documents to enter the country to work for the family with younger children.
This is when he realised he had taken someone else’s place after the man meeting them at the airport wondered where his 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.’
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,’ Mo says.
During the documentary, Sir Mo visits the shack he lived in with his uncle in Djibouti and says: ‘The hardest thing is admitting to myself that someone from my own family may have been involved in trafficking me.’
After hiding the truth for 30 years, he says he wants to ‘feel normal’ rather than ‘holding on to something.’
He learns there are up to 100,000 trafficking victims in the UK, adding: ‘What really saved me… was I could run.’
