How West African traffickers are buying and selling on QNET’s identify

[ad_1] Saidu Bah BBC Africa Eye, Makeni

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/496b/live/9095bc10-f246-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="BBC Foday Musa, who has a white goatee, looks solemn. He wears a yellow and black top and white and black knitted skull cap and behind him is a window with blue painted frames." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> BBC Foday Musa has not seen his youngsters for almost two years

Foday Musa seemed damaged as he listened to the final voice message he obtained from his son.

It's 76 seconds lengthy and the younger man sounds determined. He's crying, begging for his father's assist.

"It is so onerous to listen to. Listening to his voice hurts me," Musa instructed BBC Africa Eye, which was given unique entry to a police unit that helped him as he searched for 2 of his youngsters who had fallen sufferer to scammers.

It was in February 2024 that Musa's 22-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter, together with 5 others, had been recruited from their distant village within the Faranah area of central Guinea by brokers promising them work overseas.

The roles by no means materialised and the so-called recruiters turned out to be human traffickers. The group was taken throughout the border into Sierra Leone and held captive.

"My coronary heart is damaged. I can not cease crying. In the event you take a look at my eyes, you may see the ache," Musa mentioned.

His case was picked up by the worldwide policing company Interpol in Guinea, which requested their unit in Sierra Leone to assist. So final August Musa, travelled to Makeni, in central Sierra Leone, in a bid to seek out them.

1000's of individuals throughout West Africa are being lured by a human trafficking rip-off, generally referred to as QNET.

Based in Hong Kong, QNET itself is a authentic wellness and way of life firm - it permits folks to enroll to purchase their merchandise and promote them on-line.

Its enterprise mannequin has confronted some criticism - nonetheless in West Africa, felony gangs are utilizing its identify as a entrance for his or her unlawful actions.

The traffickers goal folks with the promise of labor alternatives in locations just like the US, Canada, Dubai and Europe, asking them to pay giant sums of cash for administration prices earlier than they begin the job.

As soon as they've paid, they're typically trafficked to a neighbouring nation and instructed they will solely journey overseas as soon as they recruit others into the scheme.

But even after they herald household and pals, the roles by no means materialise.

QNET itself has a marketing campaign operating throughout the area, involving billboards and media adverts. These are all splashed with the slogan "QNET In opposition to Scams" and the corporate has rejected allegations that it's linked to human trafficking.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/2287/live/680fef80-f247-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Traders with goods balancing on their heads pass in front of a big billboard in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which says 'QNET AGAINST SCAMS'." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Billboards like this attempt to warn folks in West Africa in regards to the scammers posing as QNET recruiters

Musa and his prolonged household had already given $25,000 (£19,000) to the traffickers - this encompassed the becoming a member of charges and extra cash paid to attempt to get his youngsters dwelling. Travelling to Sierra Leone himself was his final hope.

Mahmoud Conteh, the pinnacle of investigations on the anti-trafficking unit of Interpol inside the Sierra Leone police, mentioned the case was a precedence for his unit.

"It is very simple for these traffickers to manoeuvre throughout every of our borders at these unlawful crossing factors," he instructed the BBC.

When Conteh obtained a tip-off that a lot of younger folks had been being held in a location in Makeni, Musa joined the police as they raided the property, hoping to seek out his youngsters.

Luggage and garments had been strewn throughout the flooring. It's thought 10 to fifteen folks slept in every room.

The Interpol group gathered everybody contained in the property and located some as younger as 14 had been dwelling there.

"The bulk are Guineans. There is just one Sierra Leonean amongst them. All the remainder are Guineans," mentioned Conteh.

Musa's youngsters weren't amongst them, although one younger man mentioned that they had been there the earlier week - the primary potential sighting of his youngsters in a yr.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1e84/live/377a4620-f249-11f0-b385-5f48925de19a.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Young men and women sitting on a floor, their faces have been blurred. They were found in the house that was raided by police in Makeni." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Most of these present in the home in Makeni had been from Guinea

The group had been transferred to the police station for screening earlier than 19 of them had been taken dwelling to Guinea.

The police say they've carried out greater than 20 raids like this over the previous yr, rescuing tons of of victims of human trafficking.

Typically victims have been moved by the traffickers throughout borders, however others, like 23-year-old Aminata, a Sierra Leonean whose identify has been modified to guard her id, are trafficked inside their very own international locations.

Sitting on a plastic chair with the slopes of Makeni's Wusum Hills behind her within the distance, Aminata instructed the BBC how a pal had launched her to folks claiming to characterize QNET in mid-2024.

She was profitable in an interview and was instructed she would go on a course earlier than flying to the US for additional examine and work.

The one catch was she needed to pay $1,000 to hitch the scheme.

Satisfied it was authentic, her household gave her the cash that they had saved for her school charges.

"After they first recruit you, they feed you, they handle you. However as time goes by, they cease," she instructed the BBC, happening to say that is when she needed to go the "further mile" to outlive.

"You need to promote your physique and go sleep with males with the intention to get cash - so you may handle your self."

Aminata mentioned she was instructed that if she needed to journey, she needed to recruit different folks into the scheme.

To do that, the traffickers gave her a global quantity to make it appear to be she was already overseas when she contacted them.

"They take you to the airport and also you costume properly such as you're about to journey. They provide you a passport, offer you pretend journey papers," she defined.

"Then they take your photograph so you may ship them to your family and friends."

Aminata managed to influence six pals and kin to hitch the scheme, nonetheless hoping the job within the US would materialise. It by no means did.

"I felt terrible as a result of they wasted their cash they usually suffered due to me."

She was held someplace on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, for a few yr earlier than it dawned on her that the job would by no means be forthcoming.

When Aminata did not recruit anybody else, it appears she was deemed of no extra use to the traffickers - and when she determined to flee, she was not stopped.

Returning dwelling after the whole lot that had occurred, particularly when everybody had thought she had been dwelling overseas, was onerous.

"I used to be scared to return dwelling," she mentioned.

"I would instructed my pals that I would travelled overseas. I would instructed my household the identical. I used to be excited about all the cash they'd given me to get there."

There aren't any statistics on the variety of victims of these kind of labour scams however there are fixed reviews within the media throughout West Africa of gangs scamming folks determined to consider these overseas jobs schemes are actual.

The BBC joined the police on a few dozen raids over three days in Makeni and met tons of of younger individuals who had been trafficked throughout the area from international locations reminiscent of Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Mali.

The police mentioned that they had arrested 12 suspected traffickers in whole.

However the actuality is that there are only some profitable prosecutions and the under-resourced authorities within the area typically face an uphill battle in tackling such scams.

Based on US state division statistics, between July 2022 - when Sierra Leone's anti-trafficking act was handed - and April 2025, there have been solely 4 trafficking convictions.

Musa by no means discovered his youngsters and had no alternative however to return to Guinea with out them on the finish of September.

Conteh, from Interpol, has since instructed the BBC the traffickers launched Foday's youngsters not lengthy afterwards.

The BBC has since confirmed that Musa's daughter made it again to Guinea, however she has not returned to her village - and didn't wish to be interviewed.

She has not contacted her father, which factors to the disgrace felt by most of the victims caught up within the rip-off.

The whereabouts of Musa's son are unknown.

It stays a determined scenario for his or her father.

"In spite of everything that has occurred, I actually simply need all of it to be over and to see my children," mentioned Musa.

"We would love them to return again to the village now - I would love them to be right here with me."

Extra reporting by Paul Myles, Chris Walter, Olivia Acland and Tamasin Ford

Extra BBC Africa Eye tales from Sierra Leone:

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/0a19/live/7c722dc0-089d-11ef-b9d8-4f52aebe147d.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News Africa" class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Getty Photos/BBC [ad_2] Source link