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