SOURCE: #BBCAfricaEye
Foday Musa looked broken as he listened to the last voice message he received from his son.
It is 76 seconds long and the young man sounds desperate. He is crying, begging for his father’s help.
“It’s so hard to hear. Hearing his voice hurts me,” Musa told BBC Africa Eye, which was given exclusive access to a police unit that helped him as he searched for two of his children who had fallen victim to scammers.
In January 2026, BBC Africa Eye released a report following an investigation where they were granted exclusive access to Interpol’s anti-trafficking unit within the Sierra Leone police. Led by Mahmoud Conteh, head of investigations, the unit is targeting criminal gangs that use the name of legitimate companies like QNET as a front to lure vulnerable people into forced labor scams across West Africa.
Key findings and details from the investigation include:
- Operation Dynamics: The BBC joined the unit on roughly a dozen raids over three days in Makeni, central Sierra Leone. They discovered hundreds of young victims from countries including Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Mali held in overcrowded properties, with some as young as 14.
- The Scam: Traffickers promise high-paying jobs in the US, Europe, or Dubai, demanding large “administration” fees. Once victims pay and arrive in a neighboring country, they are held captive and told they can only leave after recruiting more people into the scheme.
- Case Highlight: The report features Foday Musa, a father who paid $25,000 to traffickers and joined the police raids in a desperate search for two of his children. While his daughter eventually returned to Guinea, her brother’s whereabouts remain unknown.
- Legal Challenges: Despite 12 arrests made during the filmed raids, the region faces significant hurdles in prosecution. Data shows that between July 2022 and April 2025, Sierra Leone secured only four trafficking convictions.
The investigation reveals the harrowing, long-term impact on victims, who are often subjected to violence, threats, and forced criminality before being rescued.
