Mo Farah isn’t who he says he is

[SnottyLottie]

news.sky.com/story/sir-mo-farah-reveals-the-truth-about-how-he-came-to-the-uk-12650126

My mind is actual blown after reading that. Poor man to have to go through such an ordeal. I wonder what ever happened to the real Mohammad Farah? ☹️

Hope this doesn’t effect his citizenship or anything.

I don’t understand why the woman who brought him here hasn’t been arrested??!! (Or maybe has, but it can’t be reported on?)

I read this terrible story this morning and I don't understand how the woman who trafficked him isn't being investigated by the police!?
Also, what about his family in Somaliland, are we to assume they sold him into trafficking because there seems to be no mention he was kidnapped?
It's all so very tragic.

Didn’t the family think they were sending him to the uk to be with family? Is there any mention of his real mum now? Has he managed to find her again?

This is a not uncommon story unfortunately, poor Mo, what awful odds to have overcome and how brave to admit to it now with Tory loons fighting to support Patel's repellent policy. I trust she'll be too embarassed to attempt to repatriate him but keep your eye on her. I wouldn't put it past her if she thought there were a couple of votes to be gained.

He IS ‘who he says he is’. He is the person he is, athlete, Father, husband, citizen.

It’s just that us, the public, have not been privy to the details of his life which he has been unable to tell.

Actually, HOPPINGREEN, there may be details we don’t know and never will.

I used to work on projects involving young people who had arrived as unaccompanied minors. The trauma is extreme.

Often the details of abuse are too psychologically difficult to tell, and as the public it isn’t our right or business to know.

Safety continues to be a major issue for decades. One young man suddenly burst into our office one day with chocolates to share. He had just heard that his brother, a doctor in his home country, had been found alive and free after a violent kidnap. He had been blinded in one eye, deafened in one ear, but was alive.

Until he knew his brother was safe he hadn’t said he had a brother. His parents were verified as being murdered. He had said he had no
living relatives. Not to the authorities (I think) not to us. Because Leave to Remain is not safety.

Our response was to celebrate with him, not start questioning whether he was a liar.

Sorry what?!? What are you on about?

Idiotic comment.

And yes, there are many tales like this, teachers know, people who work with young people, Looked After children, and the Home Office know.

But people’s traumatic lives should not be tabloid fodder.

He had a twin brother I remember watching something (might have been comic relief,) Mo was talking about being "chosen "and his brother left behind it was all deception that everyone went along with. The documentary Is on iplayer and on bbc1 tonight at 9 if anybody wants to watch.

The anguish is still etched on his face, even all these years later. You never get over something like that. To have the grit to then win 4 track gold medals and countless marathons and be such an all round decent guy is just astonishing. He deserves the knighthood, what a courageous and incredible man. Stand tall, Sir Mo!

I think he is very brave to have spoken about his past. I wonder if he has chosen to do so now because of the current hateful policies this government has introduced. What an amazing person he is.

I tried to find details about MF's childhood, ~10 years ago. It was so vague, kind of weird, no specific details. No specific people or info about their stories. Now I know why.

My understanding (now) is he has the legal right to use name MF and he was always truthful to home office, so no deportation case to answer legally. Culturally he might be vilified, though.

Is his upbringing not in his autobiography?

From what I've read, isn't the cousin a relative of the real Mo Farah? And runner Mo Farah just had to go along with that?

The "brothers" he came to the UK with have never really featured in his public life, and now we know why.

The twin he had back home was found and they reconnected but I don't remember ever seeing a surname used. He was always just called his twin, Hassan. Never Hassan Farah.

I think he has been walking a fine line of keeping up the identity forced upon him, and taking the connections that came with it like the footballer cousin, whilst trying to become himself again and have his real family in his life without publicly revealing the truth.

I could be totally wrong and the cousin having the same surname is coincidence or the extended family adopted the name to match. I don't know.

Yes.
It REALLY highlights how bloody awful our current 'rules' are.
Shame on Priti Patel, Johnson, Braverman et al.

Very Courageous of Mo Farah to go public with this.
It may help other individuals, & society as a whole, enormously.

I work with refugees and stories like this are horribly common.

I hope the family he enslaved him are brought to justice.

We must do more to smash the people smuggling rings.

Maybe it will be clearer if we can see the programme but is his twin actually his twin or is that part of the story? I thought he was a Farah as well?

Brave man Mo.

He is so brave to speak out about his traumatic childhood. Amazing man. I am a former teacher and know that, sadly, stories like his are not uncommon.

In the BBC article he says that his mother and two brothers live on their farm in Somaliland.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62123886

Fairly sure that they're saying the rules are inhumane, not that he was actually lucky.

I am glad he has felt able to share his story now. I hope it raises awareness of child trafficking.

DH came to this country as an asylum seeker and was granted refugee status. I’m not sure he would have got it today under the current rules.

I am tired of the refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants are a drain, that I see spouted (I am avoiding the comments section of the Mail). I think we should allow controlled economic migration as well as asylum. The vast majority of immigrants come here to work hard and make a better life.

My best wishes to Sir Mo, I’m glad he managed to escape his situation and build a good life for himself.

You need a reset of your basic reading comprehension.

I doubt he will be stripped of anything.