UK police have launched an investigation after four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah revealed he was trafficked to the country as a child.
“We are aware of reports in the media concerning Sir Mo Farah,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Thursday.
“Specialist officers have opened an investigation and are currently assessing the available information.”
The inquiry comes after Farah shockingly revealed that he was brought to the UK aged 8 by a woman he did not know.
The 39-year-old told a BBC documentary that he was forced to care for the woman’s children and wasn’t allowed to go to school until he was 12.
Farah also revealed he had arrived in the UK using fake identity documents and that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
The UK government has said it won’t take action against Farah for any potential violation of immigration laws.
Farah had previously said he moved to Britain with his family in 1993 as a Somalian refugee but now says his parents never came to Europe.
According to the documentary, his father was killed by gunfire during unrest in Somalia when Farah was four years old. His mother and two brothers live on the family farm in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia that is not internationally recognised.
Farah told the BBC that his schoolteacher had helped him obtain UK citizenship under the name Mohamed Farah. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017.
The athlete added that he was proud to have represented Britain but that his “proudest achievement will always be being a husband and father to my amazing family.″
