First picture of a woman who brought Mo Farah to the UK on a fake visa

This is the first picture of Nimco Farah – the woman at the center of Mo Farah’s human trafficking lawsuits.

The 54-year-old has told her family she brought the future running star to the UK on a fake visa but said she was forced to do it and denied treating him like a slave when they arrived in London.

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Speaking to The Sun on Sunday about her son Ahmed, Nimco claimed young Mo’s arrival was a last-minute change of plans.

He says she was told her visa had three children on it.

When a third child dropped out, she brought along Sir Mo, now 39, instead – meaning the then nine-year-old future Olympic champion arrived under a false name.

Ahmed, 33, spoke for the first time on a BBC program following the Sir Mo revelations: “My mother has done nothing wrong.

“She was a young woman with two small children and she said they gave her a piece of paper and said, ‘Bring that person.’ She was forced.

“She was told, ‘If you only take two children and the visa includes three children, they will not let you into the country.’

“My mother said she risked everything for him to come with us and treated him like her own son only to be accused of these horrible things.”

The real Mohamed Farah was left behind in East Africa while the boy who took his name became one of the greatest British sportsmen of all time.

Nimco also told Ahmed she was sold a sobbing story that Sir Mo – who revealed last week his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin – had a severe burn which required treatment by the NHS in the UK.

Ahmed said his mother has vowed to fight allegations that she was involved in trafficking Sir Mo from Djibouti to London in 1991 and forced him into domestic slavery.

The Met Police are investigating the claims.

Ahmed added: “She lived in Djibouti with her husband, my father Mukhtar Farah, who had emigrated to London, and he arranged visas for the UK so that she could come to him with my older brother Wahib and I.

“She said my father also got a visa for his eldest son from his first marriage – this is the real Mohamed Farah – who was living in Nairobi, Kenya at the time.”

But for reasons not fully explained, Mohamed could not get to them in time for the flight and a plan was hatched to bring another child in his place.

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Nimco told Ahmed her mother Aisha, who died in 2005, was instrumental in promoting Hussein – who became Sir Mo.

He lived with an uncle in Djibouti after fleeing the civil war in Somalia.

Ahmed added: “It wasn’t her idea, she said she was just told this was the best way to ensure we all got through passport control when we landed at Heathrow.”

Nimco, the three children and her husband Mukhtar lived in council housing in Hounslow, west London, where Sir Mo was forced to cook, clean and bathe the other youngsters.

She separated from Mukhtar in the mid-1990s before moving to nearby Southall, where she raised her sons Wahib, 35, Ahmed, 33, and Mahad, 27.

Meanwhile, Sir Mo had moved in with another woman named Kinsi, whom he considered an aunt.

Nimco’s English is limited, so she spoke through Ahmed, who was deported for a knife crime in 2016 and now lives in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, where he works as a taxi driver.

He reveals he found out about the family secret when he was nine – and is still in touch with the real Mohamed Farah, who is now 40 and trying to start a new life in Europe.

“She Risked Everything”

He said: “There was no way my mum knew what was going on.

“It wasn’t like she grabbed a kid off the curb and put her on a plane.

“Hussein had an accident where his arm was burned with boiling water or something. My grandmother said: ‘There are no good doctors here, so take this young man so that he can stay with you and be treated.’

“Nobody said, ‘You’re going to be our slave and do the dishes.’

“I have very clear memories of my childhood. We were all told ‘go clean your room’ and given chores like any other house – everyone had to do their part.

“Mum treated Mo like her own son and we played together all the time. I was nine years old when I found out he wasn’t my real brother.

“Father said to me ‘This is not your brother, your brother is in Kenya’ and he gave me the phone to say hello. Can you imagine how that feels?

“I felt sorry for the real Mo as he was left behind in Africa and didn’t grow up much.

“But at the same time I was always so proud of Hussein and considered him my brother. I thought, ‘The person who took Mohamed’s place made the family proud’.”

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Speaking on BBC One’s Real Mo Farah documentary, the Olympic athlete explained that he was four years old when his mother sent him away from Somaliland to escape bombing after his father Abdi was killed in the civil war.

Sir Mo recalled boarding a plane with a woman, unnamed by the BBC but said to be Nimco, and their two sons after being told he was staying with relatives in Europe.

When he arrived at Heathrow, he said the woman had presented a visa with his photo but not his name and told him to call himself ‘Mohamed’.

He claimed the woman later forced him into a life of domestic slavery, doing chores at her home in London and forbidding him to play with the other children.

Sir Mo, who was knighted in 2017, said: “I had all my relatives’ contact details and when we got to her house the lady took it from me and right in front of me tore it up and put it in the bin and at that moment I knew me that I was in trouble.”

Sir Mo, who chose to continue using the false name, says he only escaped when he was sent to live with Mukhtar’s sister Kinsi in Hanworth, south-west London.

Sarah Rennie, Mo’s class teacher at Feltham Community College, told the BBC he came to school “unkempt and scruffy”, spoke little English and was an “emotionally and culturally alienated child”.

When a young Mo confided in his former PE teacher Alan Watkinson, he helped him get a grant and apply for British citizenship so he could run for his adopted country.

Sir Mo later tracked down his mother, also known as Aisha, and his twin brother Hassan in Somaliland – but fears he may have been sold into slavery by a family member.

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