(Adnkronos) – South African authorities have stated they are investigating human trafficking allegations related to a fraudulent recruitment scheme, whereby multiple social media influencers shared campaigns promising young South African women jobs in a Russia-based program, which according to a 2024 Associated Press investigation forces some of them to assemble attack drones for the war in Ukraine.
South Africa’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, told Afp that the matter is “under investigation”, while the Ministry for Women and Youth expressed “deep concern about recent reports of alleged job offers circulating on social media targeting young South African women aged 18 to 22 for employment opportunities in Russia”, urging young people to “remain vigilant”. “Human trafficking partnerships lure young people into all sorts of illegal activities in slave-like conditions,” the head of public diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Clayson Monyela, told Radio 702, highlighting that “it is essentially human trafficking because, in practice, you lose your freedom”.
In videos shared with millions of followers, several South African influencers encouraged women between 18 and 22 to join a program called “Alabuga Start”, with vague promises of international careers, flights, accommodation and Russian language courses in the central Russian region of Tatarstan. Some content shows the influencers in Russia visiting what they describe as the program’s headquarters, located in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, near the city of Yelabuga. “Apparently the girls here are treated fairly – African, Asian, Latin American,” one of them said in a later removed video, addressing her more than two million followers.
