May 2, 2025 • 13 mins
With influencer ads and high-profile marketing campaigns, Russia’s global outreach program is operating across Africa, offering young women work-study opportunities in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone. Fliers and promotional materials for the program feature images of smiling young African women working as technicians and waitresses. However, reports in international media suggest that the reality of working in Alabuga is far grimmer than the version being marketed.
On this week’s episode, Senior Reporter Antony Sguazzin joins Jennifer Zabasajja to explore whether the scheme’s claims hold up under scrutiny and how Interpol is investigating allegations that the program amounts to human trafficking. Instead of providing genuine job opportunities, it may be placing young African women at risk in a war zone.
You can read Antony’s reporting on the Alabuga Start programme here.
For more stories from the region, subscribe to the Next Africa newsletter here
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
With glossy influencer campaigns and promises of well paid work
and new experiences. Young African women are being targeted for
jobs in Russia.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
You know that you can view the career in a
large international company in Russia while you learn the Russian
language and end between. It's hard than sixty dollars three thousand,
seven eighty dollars. Oh you didn't, well, now you do.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But could the reality be far grimmer than what's being sold?
With reports of African women being forced to build drones
in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone under grueling and hazardous.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Conditions and for less money than promised.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
On this week's Next Africa Podcast, we look at the
Alibuga Star program, how it's trying to recruit thousands of
young African women and the warnings from some that this
may amount to human trafficking. I'm Jennifer Zabasaja and this
is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each
week from the continent driving the future of global growth
(01:11):
with the context only Bloomberg can provide. Joining me to
discuss this story this week is our Bloomberg Senior Reporter
Anthony squisine based in Johannesburg. Anthony, thanks so much for
coming on the podcast and really fascinating story that you've
put out. Let's just start here and if you can
(01:32):
talk a bit about these outreach programs that you and
the team were able to uncover and what they're purporting
to offer to young African women.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
What we found was is that a group called Alabuga Start,
which represents the Alabuga Special Economic sol and in a
Republic of Pakistan in Russia, is offering online registration for
jobs and study programs based at the economic zone and
they're also holding recruitment fares, one of which was in
(02:06):
Gabarone and Whatswana which we attended. Now, what they advertise
is a range of jobs ranging from hospitality, a bit
of home improvement, you know, plastering walls, things like that,
and generally developing a few skills and getting paid eight
hundred and sixty dollars a month or wall And basically
it's a two year program, this is what they say,
(02:29):
and they advertise it as a positive experience where you
may get for the job opportunities once you've completed it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And just on the face of it, based on what
you're saying, I mean, it sounds like it could be
a good opportunity for some people, but you know, digging
under the surface, it's clearly not the picture that you found.
But talk about who they're targeting with these programs. Who
are they trying to recruit and they who have they recruited.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Well, it's very specific. The course is only open to
young women between the ages of eighteen and twenty two.
They started in twenty twenty three when they recruited I
think just twenty or thirty people according to their website,
and another three hundred and thirty last year. But this
year they're trying to up it up by about a
good few thousand more. So it's really expanded incredibly, and
(03:17):
basically they've costed it very wide across seventy seven countries,
but the majority of African countries, and if you look
at their website and you look at who their recruits are,
who the testimony is a problem, it's predominantly a young
woman from or African countries now, but Swan is not
one of those. It's quite rich actually, but it does
have a massive youth unemployment problem.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And the programs, then what is it that is being
sold to them because you mentioned a lot of the
recruits are coming from poorer countries, but Tswana not included.
But what is it that they're trying to get away
from and being offered?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, in many of these countries, there are very few
opportunities for employment. And in many of them as well,
woman you get even less opportunity than young men would get.
So it's perceived as a good way of getting training.
All you have to do is have a little of
high school education and it's pretty unclear as to what
you'll exactly be doing. We've seen a lot of reporting
that people actually end up doing quite different jobs from
(04:17):
what they had anticipated.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Dig into that a bit more, if you can, Anthony
quite different meaning what Well, there's.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Been a lot of reporting in Russia's in the bed
and Press and even in the Associated Press last year
that a lot of the young African women actually end up
making well helping to assemble drones at a factory on
the site and especially on economic zone, and those drones
are used in Russia's war effort against Ukraine. Now that's
not the work they signed up for. In fact, the
(04:45):
organizers specifically deny that why they're being sent there. And
you know the event we went to. They told parents
that there was no way that people being recruits to
work in munitions factories or in drone factories, but there
is overwhelming evidence that that is the case, that they
do end up working in these factories as cheap labor,
and those factories are actually a military target for Ukrainian attacks.
(05:09):
As you know, we ran the story last week and
only two days before we ran the story, and there
was an attack on that site where Ukrainian drones bombed
the factory and that's happened I think eleven times as
far as we can see. So it does make them
in the awards. One analyst, we spoke to legitimate targets
of the Ukrainian conflict.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So, Anthony, you mentioned the event that the team went to,
can you just describe more about what you saw and
also some of the people that you heard from.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, it was quite hard to speak to a lot
of people. It's quite a secretive event. It was at
the University of Botswana. There were about sixty people there,
that's both young women and their parents and presenting to them.
We're a local organizer. A youth leader who was working
for Alabugie start as well as the head of a
youth employment program in Botswana, and there were also two
(05:58):
representatives from the Russian program who had flown out for
that program, and they basically, you know, encouragedly and wanted
to take up the opportunity. Spoke a lot about female
empowerment and how this was a good opportunity and how
you would learn lots of skills and then possibly after
the two years you could possibly get a work permit
and get an even higher pay job in Russia itself,
(06:19):
or alternatively, you could work your return home with all
of those skills and set yourself up for a prosperous future.
So that's the vision they were selling. Now, they got
asked a lot of questions by parents, especially, you know,
about what they've seen on social media about drone making,
and they denied all of it. In fact, Christopher Sigating,
the head of a nonprofit called BW Jobs for Gratz,
(06:43):
which is trying to find employment for Partswanans, said that
he'd be to Russia, saw no problem and people should
take a leap of faith and take up the program.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Sick with us, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
After the break, we're going to talk more about some
of these programs and what the international fallout could be
as more as uncovered about them, will be right back,
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Today.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
We're looking into a Russian global outreach program active in
Africa that's being accused of trafficking young African women to
Russia to work in dangerous conditions. We have Anthony's cuisine
still with us. Anthony, Let's talk more about You talked
about the drones that are potentially being used.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
In Russia's war effort.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
How much evidence is there that there's a correlation between
the two.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I think that's a fair amount of evidence. It's been
reported extensively by both Russian media. There's a lot of
testimony and small obscure African newspapers from people who've returned
from these projects who said they didn't really experience what
they had been told they would be doing and that
actually ended up working in these factories. The organization itself
declined to answer any of our questions, as did the
(07:54):
regional government in Takastan. This has been building up quite
some time, and I think but there's realtinal evidence they're
doing much else aside from tronmaking.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So then if that is truly the case, shouldn't the
government in Botswana and some of the other countries where
these young people are being recruited, shouldn't they step in?
Shouldn't they also be taking some of these accusations quite seriously.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Well, we spoke to the Botswana and Foreign minisot and
he wasn't aware of the program, and we did the
same in Uganda, they had very limited information. Same in
Zimbabwe with young women have being recruited from those countries
because we've seen them on the website and we've spoken
to a few of them as well as Ethiopia. But
what we do find is that in SEPOL, which has
an office in Botswana, had seen the social media posts
(08:38):
or they'd been pointed out to them, and on suspicion
of there might be some human trafficking going on, they
had actually interviewed one of the local organizers for Alabugi
Start and they are conducting an investigation. So we'll need
to see if anything comes of that.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
What would come of it?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
If anything, I mean you mentioned interpot people are very
familiar with that. Could Could the governments in Russia potentially
be implicated.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, I'm sure they could be because the program organizers
who came out from Russia to Botswana did meet with
the ambassadors, so there is a connection with the Russian state.
Now what action Interval could take is unclear. I mean,
they could close down a program prevented from operating in Botswana,
and I'm sure if there was some more information that
would know basically raise awareness in other African countries who
(09:24):
I am, I'm sure will also be concerned that their
citizens were being misled into going to a program which
or no resemblance to what was being advertised.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Have we seen that and some of these accusations though
affecting the interest of young people wanting to go and
work on these jobs.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, I think that it's quite new. As I said,
they recruited twenty or thirty people in the first year,
a few hundred last year. Now they I think the
target they said was to eight thy five hundred for
this year, so it's a massive expansion. What we did
see is that Russian reports things said that people who
work in these drone factories have to sign massive confidentiality
agreements and if they break those, they get you know,
(10:07):
large fines and leaded upon them. We don't know what
other pressure might be put upon them. So across the continent.
People we spoke to, people other newspapers are spoken to
have not wanted to disclose their identity because they are
concerned and frightened and therefore have wanted to, you know,
at least keep your anonymity. So I think it's taken
(10:28):
a while for this mess to get up. And we
also need to realize when you're recruiting from countries like
serial Leone, if you appear some of the poorest countries
on Earth, people are pretty desperate and are likely to
take up opportunities even if they do have sudden misgivings.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Which is the sad reality of it, right Anthony.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Finally, I mean, does this say something more about the
relationship that we're still seeing between Africa and Russia to
a certain extent, I mean, how much how much did
that feed into the story that you and the team
were trying to uncover.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Russia has made a concerted air in recent years to
rekindle the influence that had during the Soviet Union era
in Africa. You know, we've seen that with the deployments
of mercenaries and wagoner operatives in many African countries. We
see the Russian Orthodox Church establish itself across the continent,
which is an example of soft power. And we've seen
(11:19):
frequent visits by Russian officials and politicians to Africa and
even the holding of Africa Leader summits in Russia which
are as entered by President Vladimir Putin. So I think
the fact that they've managed to expand the net across
Africa has allowed groups like Alabuga Star to kind of
(11:39):
piggyback on that diplomatic reach and to try and attract
the young workers. I think they're not coming into these
situations called there is an existing link between the embassies
and the governments of the African countries. And also they're
operating in Southern Stasia as well, and have said that
they will be looking into Latin America and I'm sure
it's pretty similar there.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And you can read more of Antony's reporting on Bloomberg
platforms right now. Will put a link to that in
the show notes. Here's some of the other stories from
the region that we've been following. South African Finance Minister
Ino Godongwana will return to Parliament on May twenty first
to present his third attempt this year at getting a
(12:18):
budget passed. Godogwana is revising his fending plans after a
dispute within the governing coalition over a proposed tax increase
forced him to backtrack. That left the national treasury with
the seventy five billion Rand or four billion dollars shortfall
to plug over the next three years. And Kenya's annual
(12:39):
inflation rate climbed to an eight month high in April
on the tight supply of food items including corn, potatoes
and green vegetables. Official figures show consumer prices rose four
point one percent compared with three point six percent in March.
The nation's Monetary Policy Committee had projected inflation at four.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Point two percent in April.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And you can follow these stories across Bloomberg, including the
Next African Newsletter. We'll put a link to that in
the show notes. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.
Don't forget to follow and review the show wherever you
usually get your podcasts. I'm Jennifer's Abisaja. Thanks as always
for listening.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
We'll see you next time.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
With glossy influencer campaigns and promises of well paid work
and new experiences. Young African women are being targeted for
jobs in Russia.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
You know that you can view the career in a
large international company in Russia while you learn the Russian
language and end between. It's hard than sixty dollars three thousand,
seven eighty dollars. Oh you didn't, well, now you do.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But could the reality be far grimmer than what's being sold?
With reports of African women being forced to build drones
in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone under grueling and hazardous.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Conditions and for less money than promised.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
On this week's Next Africa Podcast, we look at the
Alibuga Star program, how it's trying to recruit thousands of
young African women and the warnings from some that this
may amount to human trafficking. I'm Jennifer Zabasaja and this
is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing you one story each
week from the continent driving the future of global growth
(01:11):
with the context only Bloomberg can provide. Joining me to
discuss this story this week is our Bloomberg Senior Reporter
Anthony squisine based in Johannesburg. Anthony, thanks so much for
coming on the podcast and really fascinating story that you've
put out. Let's just start here and if you can
(01:32):
talk a bit about these outreach programs that you and
the team were able to uncover and what they're purporting
to offer to young African women.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
What we found was is that a group called Alabuga Start,
which represents the Alabuga Special Economic sol and in a
Republic of Pakistan in Russia, is offering online registration for
jobs and study programs based at the economic zone and
they're also holding recruitment fares, one of which was in
(02:06):
Gabarone and Whatswana which we attended. Now, what they advertise
is a range of jobs ranging from hospitality, a bit
of home improvement, you know, plastering walls, things like that,
and generally developing a few skills and getting paid eight
hundred and sixty dollars a month or wall And basically
it's a two year program, this is what they say,
(02:29):
and they advertise it as a positive experience where you
may get for the job opportunities once you've completed it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And just on the face of it, based on what
you're saying, I mean, it sounds like it could be
a good opportunity for some people, but you know, digging
under the surface, it's clearly not the picture that you found.
But talk about who they're targeting with these programs. Who
are they trying to recruit and they who have they recruited.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Well, it's very specific. The course is only open to
young women between the ages of eighteen and twenty two.
They started in twenty twenty three when they recruited I
think just twenty or thirty people according to their website,
and another three hundred and thirty last year. But this
year they're trying to up it up by about a
good few thousand more. So it's really expanded incredibly, and
(03:17):
basically they've costed it very wide across seventy seven countries,
but the majority of African countries, and if you look
at their website and you look at who their recruits are,
who the testimony is a problem, it's predominantly a young
woman from or African countries now, but Swan is not
one of those. It's quite rich actually, but it does
have a massive youth unemployment problem.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And the programs, then what is it that is being
sold to them because you mentioned a lot of the
recruits are coming from poorer countries, but Tswana not included.
But what is it that they're trying to get away
from and being offered?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, in many of these countries, there are very few
opportunities for employment. And in many of them as well,
woman you get even less opportunity than young men would get.
So it's perceived as a good way of getting training.
All you have to do is have a little of
high school education and it's pretty unclear as to what
you'll exactly be doing. We've seen a lot of reporting
that people actually end up doing quite different jobs from
(04:17):
what they had anticipated.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Dig into that a bit more, if you can, Anthony
quite different meaning what Well, there's.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Been a lot of reporting in Russia's in the bed
and Press and even in the Associated Press last year
that a lot of the young African women actually end up
making well helping to assemble drones at a factory on
the site and especially on economic zone, and those drones
are used in Russia's war effort against Ukraine. Now that's
not the work they signed up for. In fact, the
(04:45):
organizers specifically deny that why they're being sent there. And
you know the event we went to. They told parents
that there was no way that people being recruits to
work in munitions factories or in drone factories, but there
is overwhelming evidence that that is the case, that they
do end up working in these factories as cheap labor,
and those factories are actually a military target for Ukrainian attacks.
(05:09):
As you know, we ran the story last week and
only two days before we ran the story, and there
was an attack on that site where Ukrainian drones bombed
the factory and that's happened I think eleven times as
far as we can see. So it does make them
in the awards. One analyst, we spoke to legitimate targets
of the Ukrainian conflict.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So, Anthony, you mentioned the event that the team went to,
can you just describe more about what you saw and
also some of the people that you heard from.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, it was quite hard to speak to a lot
of people. It's quite a secretive event. It was at
the University of Botswana. There were about sixty people there,
that's both young women and their parents and presenting to them.
We're a local organizer. A youth leader who was working
for Alabugie start as well as the head of a
youth employment program in Botswana, and there were also two
(05:58):
representatives from the Russian program who had flown out for
that program, and they basically, you know, encouragedly and wanted
to take up the opportunity. Spoke a lot about female
empowerment and how this was a good opportunity and how
you would learn lots of skills and then possibly after
the two years you could possibly get a work permit
and get an even higher pay job in Russia itself,
(06:19):
or alternatively, you could work your return home with all
of those skills and set yourself up for a prosperous future.
So that's the vision they were selling. Now, they got
asked a lot of questions by parents, especially, you know,
about what they've seen on social media about drone making,
and they denied all of it. In fact, Christopher Sigating,
the head of a nonprofit called BW Jobs for Gratz,
(06:43):
which is trying to find employment for Partswanans, said that
he'd be to Russia, saw no problem and people should
take a leap of faith and take up the program.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Sick with us, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
After the break, we're going to talk more about some
of these programs and what the international fallout could be
as more as uncovered about them, will be right back,
Welcome back.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Today.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
We're looking into a Russian global outreach program active in
Africa that's being accused of trafficking young African women to
Russia to work in dangerous conditions. We have Anthony's cuisine
still with us. Anthony, Let's talk more about You talked
about the drones that are potentially being used.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
In Russia's war effort.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
How much evidence is there that there's a correlation between
the two.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
I think that's a fair amount of evidence. It's been
reported extensively by both Russian media. There's a lot of
testimony and small obscure African newspapers from people who've returned
from these projects who said they didn't really experience what
they had been told they would be doing and that
actually ended up working in these factories. The organization itself
declined to answer any of our questions, as did the
(07:54):
regional government in Takastan. This has been building up quite
some time, and I think but there's realtinal evidence they're
doing much else aside from tronmaking.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So then if that is truly the case, shouldn't the
government in Botswana and some of the other countries where
these young people are being recruited, shouldn't they step in?
Shouldn't they also be taking some of these accusations quite seriously.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Well, we spoke to the Botswana and Foreign minisot and
he wasn't aware of the program, and we did the
same in Uganda, they had very limited information. Same in
Zimbabwe with young women have being recruited from those countries
because we've seen them on the website and we've spoken
to a few of them as well as Ethiopia. But
what we do find is that in SEPOL, which has
an office in Botswana, had seen the social media posts
(08:38):
or they'd been pointed out to them, and on suspicion
of there might be some human trafficking going on, they
had actually interviewed one of the local organizers for Alabugi
Start and they are conducting an investigation. So we'll need
to see if anything comes of that.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
What would come of it?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
If anything, I mean you mentioned interpot people are very
familiar with that. Could Could the governments in Russia potentially
be implicated.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, I'm sure they could be because the program organizers
who came out from Russia to Botswana did meet with
the ambassadors, so there is a connection with the Russian state.
Now what action Interval could take is unclear. I mean,
they could close down a program prevented from operating in Botswana,
and I'm sure if there was some more information that
would know basically raise awareness in other African countries who
(09:24):
I am, I'm sure will also be concerned that their
citizens were being misled into going to a program which
or no resemblance to what was being advertised.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Have we seen that and some of these accusations though
affecting the interest of young people wanting to go and
work on these jobs.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, I think that it's quite new. As I said,
they recruited twenty or thirty people in the first year,
a few hundred last year. Now they I think the
target they said was to eight thy five hundred for
this year, so it's a massive expansion. What we did
see is that Russian reports things said that people who
work in these drone factories have to sign massive confidentiality
agreements and if they break those, they get you know,
(10:07):
large fines and leaded upon them. We don't know what
other pressure might be put upon them. So across the continent.
People we spoke to, people other newspapers are spoken to
have not wanted to disclose their identity because they are
concerned and frightened and therefore have wanted to, you know,
at least keep your anonymity. So I think it's taken
(10:28):
a while for this mess to get up. And we
also need to realize when you're recruiting from countries like
serial Leone, if you appear some of the poorest countries
on Earth, people are pretty desperate and are likely to
take up opportunities even if they do have sudden misgivings.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Which is the sad reality of it, right Anthony.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Finally, I mean, does this say something more about the
relationship that we're still seeing between Africa and Russia to
a certain extent, I mean, how much how much did
that feed into the story that you and the team
were trying to uncover.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Russia has made a concerted air in recent years to
rekindle the influence that had during the Soviet Union era
in Africa. You know, we've seen that with the deployments
of mercenaries and wagoner operatives in many African countries. We
see the Russian Orthodox Church establish itself across the continent,
which is an example of soft power. And we've seen
(11:19):
frequent visits by Russian officials and politicians to Africa and
even the holding of Africa Leader summits in Russia which
are as entered by President Vladimir Putin. So I think
the fact that they've managed to expand the net across
Africa has allowed groups like Alabuga Star to kind of
(11:39):
piggyback on that diplomatic reach and to try and attract
the young workers. I think they're not coming into these
situations called there is an existing link between the embassies
and the governments of the African countries. And also they're
operating in Southern Stasia as well, and have said that
they will be looking into Latin America and I'm sure
it's pretty similar there.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
And you can read more of Antony's reporting on Bloomberg
platforms right now. Will put a link to that in
the show notes. Here's some of the other stories from
the region that we've been following. South African Finance Minister
Ino Godongwana will return to Parliament on May twenty first
to present his third attempt this year at getting a
(12:18):
budget passed. Godogwana is revising his fending plans after a
dispute within the governing coalition over a proposed tax increase
forced him to backtrack. That left the national treasury with
the seventy five billion Rand or four billion dollars shortfall
to plug over the next three years. And Kenya's annual
(12:39):
inflation rate climbed to an eight month high in April
on the tight supply of food items including corn, potatoes
and green vegetables. Official figures show consumer prices rose four
point one percent compared with three point six percent in March.
The nation's Monetary Policy Committee had projected inflation at four.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Point two percent in April.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And you can follow these stories across Bloomberg, including the
Next African Newsletter. We'll put a link to that in
the show notes. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.
Don't forget to follow and review the show wherever you
usually get your podcasts. I'm Jennifer's Abisaja. Thanks as always
for listening.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
We'll see you next time.
Host
Jennifer Zabasajja
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