African women tricked into making Russian drones: ‘My skin is shedding’

On his first day on the job, Adau realizes that he has made a huge mistake.

“We got our uniforms, without even knowing what we were going to do. From the first day of work we were taken to the drone factory. We entered the drones and working people. Then we took our work stations.”

Twenty-three years old and originally from South Sudan, Adau said last year he moved to the Alabugan Special Economic Zone in Russtan, Russia, on the promise of a full-time job.

She applied to the ALABUA START PROGRAM, a recruitment scheme targeting 18-to-22-year-old women, mostly from Africa and south-east Asia. It promises participants professional training in areas including logistics, preparation and hospitality.

But the program has been accused of using deceptive practices in its recruitment, and making young recruits work in dangerous conditions for less pay. It rejected all these allegations but did not deny that some employees were helping to build drones.

The ALUBUA START PROGRAM (AS) recently made global headlines when South African influencers promoting the program were accused of promoting human trafficking. The BBC reached out to the influential influencer and the promoter responsible for connecting it to the program but neither responded to our requests.

By some estimates More than 1,000 women were recruited from all over Africa to work in the weapons factories in Alabugi. In August The South African government has launched an investigation and warned citizens not to register.

Adau asked the BBC not to use her surname or picture as she did not want to be associated with the programme. He said he first heard of it in 2023.

“My friend posted about a scholarship in Russia in their Facebook status. The announcement of the South Sudanese Ministry of Lare Tigpanginter in the South,” he said.

He reached the organizers through WhatsApp.

“They asked me to fill in a form with my name, age and why I want to join Alabugga. And they also asked me to choose three farms that I want to work on.”

Adau said he chose to be a Tower-Crane operator as his first choice. He is always into technology and has even traveled abroad in the past to participate in a robotics competition.

“I want to work in the fields that are not usually done by women. It is very difficult for a woman to come to the fields like in my country.”

The application took a year because of the lengthy visa process.

In March last year, he finally made it to Russia.

“When I first got there it was so cold, I hated it. We traveled towards the end of winter. The second we stepped out of the airport, it was freezing cold.”

But the drive to the Alaboga Special Zone left him with a good first impression.

“I’m very impressed. It’s everything I thought about [going to be]. I saw many factories, automobiles and agricultural companies. “

Adau had three months of language classes before starting work in July. That’s when things started going.

He said he and the other participants were not given a choice about whether to work at the drone factory. They signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) so that their work could not be discussed with their families either.

“We all have a lot of questions. We all signed up to work in the technical fields of technical products, logistics operators, but we all ended up repairing the drone factory.”

Alabuga rejects fraud in the recruitment of workers. “All fields where our participants are listed on our website,” it said in response to our questions.

The workers were not allowed to take pictures inside the facility, but the BBC showed the ADuau Footage owned by the TV Station RT of a factory in an Iranian factory washing the Iran 136 drone. He confirmed to us that this is how he works.

“The reality of the Alabugan Special Economic Zone is that it is a war production facility,” said Spencer Faragasso from the Institute for Science and International Security.

“Russia openly admits that they created a building that was hijacked by 136 drones there in the videos they released to the public. They brag about the achievements.”

Spencer said that like Adau, many of the women they interviewed worked in the program without knowing they would be building weapons.

“On the surface, this is a wonderful opportunity for most women to see the world, to get work experience and get a brutal wage that they have a heavy awakening that they have promises that they did not keep, and the reality that they promised what they promised.”

Adau said he knew he could not continue working at the factory.

“It started to click: all the lies we’ve been told since the time of the application. I feel like I can’t work on things more in my life than in a drone factory.”

He gave his notice but was told the notice period was two weeks, during which he had to work. During that time he painted the outside screeching drones with chemicals that he said burned his skin.

“When I got home I checked my skin and it was peeling. We put on protective gear, chemicals still going through.”

Alabugga said all staff were provided with the necessary protective clothing.

And that is not the danger. On 2 April 2024, just two weeks after Adau arrived in Russia, the Alabugan Special Economic Zone was targeted by a Ukrainian Drone strike.

“That day I woke up to our fire alarm, but it was a strange one. The windows on the top floor of our hostel were broken, and some of the girls were broken by an explosion.

As they started walking away from their hostel in the cold morning air, Adau said he noticed others starting to run.

“I saw some people teaching, so I looked at the sky, and I saw a drone passing through the sky. I quickly left the people running in front of me.”

The BBC confirmed the footage Adau sent us from the day of the attack and confirmed it was taken on the same day and location as Ukraine’s deepest drone attack on Russian territory at the time.

“The drone hit the hostel next to us. It completely destroyed that building and our building was also damaged.”

Months later, when he found out that he was working in a drone factory, he thought about the attack and realized that it was targeted.

“Ukraine knows that the African girls who work in the drone factories, live in that hostel accused by the civilian staff, they say: ‘No, those are the workers who work in the workers of the drones.'”

Some women left the program unannounced after the drone attack, prompting organizers to temporarily confiscate workers’ passports.

When asked why the attack on the hostel and there were reports about Alaboga being in the center of Production Production in Russia, Adau said that he was always trusted in the fields they signed up.

“The allegations that we built the drones felt to me like anti-Russian propaganda,” he explained.

“There’s a lot of fake news coming out of Russia, trying to make Russia look bad. That’s why people who work in Russia.

After Adau studied her announcement, her family sent her a ticket home, but she said that many women cannot afford a return flight and especially that their payment is much lower than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced than announced in advertising than in advertising. Adau was meant to earn $600 (£450) per month, but only got a sixth of that.

“They deducted money for our rent, for our Russian classes, for the Wi-Fi, for our transport to work, for taxes. And then they also said that if we skipped a day of work, they’d deduct $50. If we set off the fire alarm whilst cooking, they’d deduct $60. If we didn’t hand in our Russian language homework, or if we skipped class, they’d deduct from your salary.”

The Alaboga Start Program told the BBC that pay is partly dependent on performance and work ethic.

We spoke to another woman in the program who did not want to be named for fear of social media reprimands. He said he had a very positive experience in Alabugan.

“The honesty of each company has rules. How they pay you your full salary if you do not take hostages, you do not take hostages at any time, no one takes hostages, you do not take hostages at any time, you do not take hostages at any time, you do not take hostages at any time,” everyone who takes hostages at any time you do not want.

But Adau says he works for the Russian war machine.

“It felt terrible. There was a time when I went back to my hostel and I was crying. I thought to myself: ‘I can’t believe that I am doing this now.’ It felt a hand to build something that took many lives. “