Russia's drone factory exploits African workers under false promises

Recruitment in Africa is ongoing for work in the Alabuga special economic zone, located near Yelabuga. Recently, newspapers and online portals in several African countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, have reported that the program is expanding, aiming to relocate young women from Africa, India, and Latin America for work and career development. Recruiters claim that over the past few years, hundreds of young women have decided to change their lives thanks to this initiative.

Victoria Kilani from Nigeria encourages her African colleagues to work in Russia, emphasizing in an alleged interview that Alabuga covered all her relocation costs from Africa to Russia. She claims she has her "dream job" in Russia. "They gave me a bunch of options to pick from, and I decided to go with Catering. Now, I work at a café. I started out as a kitchen worker, and now I’m a barista! Next, I’m hoping to either move up to being an administrator or become a chef. I used to make 42 thousand rubles (about CAD 620). Now I get 120-125 thousand rubles (about CAD 2000), it depends on how well I fulfill my KPI. I make enough to have decent life," the Nigerian woman reports.

The Alabuga Start recruitment program has posted similar information on social media platforms since at least 2023. The scheme mirrors the conversation with Victoria — young women are enticed with promises of a free plane ticket to Russia, education, and jobs in the hospitality and catering industries with a salary of over 720 Canadian dollars a month. However, instead of ending up in a hotel or restaurant, they are taken to the Alabuga factory in Tatarstan, where they assemble thousands of drones that are launched daily at Ukraine.

Alabuga is the secretive, largest facility in Russia producing Iranian Shahed-136 drones, which the Kremlin renamed Geran-2. To meet the demands of the expanding factory, Russia has been intensively recruiting in Africa, Asia, and Latin America for the past two years.

The African women recruited to work on assembling drone bodies told the American AP agency that they described this job as a "trap" and complained about exposure to corrosive chemicals.

They admitted that contrary to Victoria's assurances, their accommodation, airfare, medical care, and Russian language classes' costs were deducted from their wages. They also mentioned they are not allowed to leave the workplace.

In a 2024 analysis, the American Robert Lansing Institute (RLI) accused Russia of exploiting "not only Africa’s natural resources but also its people—victims of economic crises—through deception and restrictions on their freedom." The RLI stated, "This situation underscores Russia’s tacit approval and knowledge of the use of forced labour at its drone production facility. The exploitation of African women in this manner aligns with previous findings about Russia’s colonial policies in Africa."

According to David Albright, founder of the American Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), who revealed the situation of African women in a 2024 report, authorities in several countries, from which the women working in Alabuga originate, are unaware of their difficult circumstances.

In some of the initial investigations of this, the recruiters in Africa were oblivious when they were asked where these women were going — Albright said in an interview with Voice of America.

However, according to the American broadcaster, some of these countries seem to have close ties with the Russian recruitment program. Nigeria's Ministry of Education posted a document online announcing an open call for Alabuga Start in 2023. Similar announcements were disseminated by Uganda's Ministry of Education and Sports and the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, and the Russians recently visited Madagascar, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, where they signed recruitment agreements with local organizations controlled by governments.