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fullscreen Parts of downed Russian Shahed drones at a research facility in Kyiv, Ukraine. Archive image. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/TT
Young African women believed they had been recruited for jobs and training in tourism and restaurants in Russia. Instead, they were lured there to build drones that Russia uses in Ukraine.
A free plane ticket, money and an adventure. The ad on social media has attracted young women to accept a combined work-study program in Russia.
Only after the women arrived in the Russian sub-republic of Tatarstan was it revealed that they were to assemble Iranian Shahed drones to be used in the war in Ukraine.
Some of the women told the AP news agency about broken promises, long working hours, constant surveillance and working with chemicals that irritate their skin.
Russia has recruited women between the ages of 18 and 22 to meet an acute labor shortage. The women come from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, among others, but the recruitment is also aimed at other places in Asia and Latin America.
Approximately 90 percent of the foreign women who have been recruited through the program work in drone manufacturing, according to AP’s investigation.