Woman accused of trafficking Farah willing to talk to police
The woman accused of trafficking four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah to the UK as a child is said to be scared to return to west London but willing to talk to police in the belief that she has nothing to hide.
In a BBC documentary aired on Wednesday, Farah revealed that he was trafficked to the UK as a nine-year-old and given his assumed name, Mo Farah, which was stolen from another child and used to obtain a fake passport.
Upon arrival on British shores, Farah was forced into domestic servitude but eventually rescued by a PE teacher named Alan Watkinson who helped him secure British citizenship.
The British Home Office has confirmed that Farah will not be investigated despite his revelations. But British Police at Scotland Yard confirmed the opening of an investigation into the trafficking claims.
On Saturday, the Daily Mail claimed to have talked to a relative of the woman believed to have trafficked Farah, Nimco Farah, who usually resides in west London but is currently in Somaliland while "scared to return" to the UK out of fear that "she will be arrested and nobody will believe her".
Abdi Gelle, who is a cousin of Nimco Farah's, noted that there are "a lot of dangerous things being said about how she’s a trafficker and kept Mo as a slave".
"She wants to tell her side of the story but is worried that nobody will listen. Who is going to believe a little old Somali lady over a national hero like Sir Mo Farah?" he posed.
Gelle and other relatives of Nimco Farah, who is in her 70s, have also claimed that her and Mo Farah are related too.
The elderly woman is currently in Somaliland's capital Hargeisa but allegedly took nine-year-old Farah, whose real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin, to her west London flat where she posed as his mother and made him care for her children with the threat of never seeing his family again if he didn't comply.
Gelle and other relatives of Nimco Farah's that the Mail spoke to however claim that Mo Farah was taken to the UK with his family's consent, with Gelle saying that to use the term trafficking is "very serious".
Olympic gold medalist Sir Mo Farah has revealed he was trafficked to the UK as a child, given a new name and forced to work a domestic servant His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahinhttps://t.co/wN01Xd74nMpic.twitter.com/LEvN9pbcmW
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) July 11, 2022
"Those of us in the Somali community do not see it this way," Gelle explained. "A lot of people brought young children that were not biologically theirs from Somaliland to the UK and other European countries so that they could have better lives.
"Nimco did not do anything different. This whole situation is being made out to be something that it isn’t.
"This wasn’t a case of a strange woman taking a child she doesn’t know without the permission of the family. Nimco’s family know this isn’t true," Gelle went on.
Another cousin of Nimco Farah's, who preferred to remain unnamed, said: "We know the police are investigating this matter and Nimco is prepared to speak with them. But she’s unlikely to come back to the UK for this because it will be too dangerous for her."
"We can believe the allegations that Mo Farah was treated badly by her as a youngster but not those of trafficking.
"But what you also have to remember is that Somali families are not like Western ones. Children are expected to do a lot of work around the house and are brought up in a much stricter environment."
"Nimco has always been a tough lady. By Somali standards, she was just putting a child to work in the house, which is what happens in our community," Gelle insisted.
Nimco Farah is said to be separated from her ex-husband Mukhtar Farah, who is believed to live in Manchester usually but is also currently spending time in Somaliland.
Mukhtar Farah is the man that Mo Farah had previously said was his father, as part of a cover story that had Farah being sent to the UK aged eight as three of six Farah children seeking a better life.
As revealed on the documentary, however, Farah's father was killed during Somalia's civil war when he was four before he and a brother were sent to neighboring Djibouti to live with family.
While there, Nimco Farah came to observe him prior to taking a young Mo Farah to the UK.
When asked in the documentary what had happened to the woman that brought him to Britain, Farah said: "The production team contacted the lady, but she didn't want to give anything and that's all I know."
Aged 39, Farah announced his retirement from track athletics earlier in July but still harbors plans to take part in the next London Marathon in October.
