By Joseph Kamanga
When videos advertising “free flights,” “scholarships,” and “guaranteed salaries” trended on on TikTok, Telegram and WhatsApp, many young Zambian women and others in the region saw a chance for a better future. However, as disturbing testimonies emerge about Russia’s Alabuga Start Program, Citizens First president Harry Kalaba has cautioned that these offers could be traps laid by criminal networks.
The Alabuga Start program is a Russian work and study initiative that recruits young people, primarily women aged 18 to 22 from African and other developing countries, to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Russia. Participants are recruited via adverts, which promise a free education, good salaries, subsidized housing, and a chance to build a career in fields like catering, hospitality, and production.
But reports by international media and investigations by human rights organizations and government bodies like Interpol allege that the program is a deceptive scheme to recruit individuals into forced labor in a military drone production factory for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The program is heavily promoted on social media by influencers and through official-looking government channels, promising participants a free flight to Russia, free training, and competitive salaries (advertised between $580-$1780 a month). However, reports indicate that many participants were not informed they would be working in military production until after their arrival. Instead of the advertised roles, participants are primarily involved in the production of Iranian-designed Shahed 136 kamikaze drones used by the Russian military in Ukraine. These revelations led to South African influencers to apologise for promoting a programme that is accused of extensive rights violations.
Reports mention long hours, low pay compared to promises, and health and safety violations, including working with chemicals that caused skin injuries while some reports suggest restrictions on movement and communication with the outside world, and that the program holds participants’ passports.
A recent BBC report says estimates indicate that over 1,000 young women aged between 18 and 22 have been recruited from across Africa to work in Alabuga’s weapons factories. In August 2025, the South African government warned women against signing up for the Alabuga programme. The BBC spoke to one victim from South Sudan, Adau (not real name), who revealed that she was lured to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, on the promise of a full-time job.
She had applied to the Alabuga Start programme, a recruitment scheme targeting 18-to-22-year-old women, mostly from Africa but also increasingly from Latin America and South-East Asia, promising them professional training in areas including logistics, catering and hospitality.
However, the programme has been accused of using deceptive means in its recruitment processes, and of making its young recruits work in dangerous conditions for less pay than advertised. According to BBC, the Alabuga Start denies all these allegations but did not deny that some employees were helping to build drones.
“My friend posted about a scholarship in Russia on their Facebook status. The advert was by the South Sudanese Ministry of Higher Education,” Adau says.
In a warning to Zambian women, Kalaba, the former Foreign Affairs minister, described the situation as a national emergency that demands immediate action.
“We condemn in the strongest terms any scheme that misleads our country’s young women into exploitative labour abroad,” Kalaba said.
The warning comes as the South African government has received distress calls from 17 citizens trapped in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, who were deliberately recruited to join mercenary forces under false pretenses. The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) confirmed that the 17 men, between the ages of 20-39, were lenticularly targeted by recruiters promising lucrative employment contracts.
“These young men were enticed with promises of high-paying jobs, only to find themselves in a desperate situation,” said a DIRCO spokesperson. “We are working tirelessly to secure their safe return home and will do everything in our power to bring those responsible to justice.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the circumstances, condemning the exploitation of vulnerable young people by individuals working with foreign military entities.
“We will not stand idly by while our citizens are exploited and put in harm’s way,” Ramaphosa said. “We will take all necessary measures to protect our citizens and hold those responsible accountable.”
A Danger Hidden Behind Hope
Across Africa, women have come forward claiming they were promised free education and stable employment in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone — only to arrive and find harsh working conditions, confiscated documents, restricted communication, and what many describe as modern-day slavery.
Kalaba says these revelations must not be ignored.
“Young women and teenagers in Zambia have aspirations, and rightly so,” he said. “But their dreams must not be exploited by criminal networks masquerading as recruiters.”
A Call for a National Crackdown
Kalaba has asked the Zambian government to conduct a full investigation into the Alabuga Start Programme and similar offers, work with immigration, police, and international agencies including Interpol and issue nationwide warnings specifically aimed at young women.
He also urged the government of strengthen anti-trafficking laws and enforcement and support and repatriate Zambians already trapped abroad.
Kalaba also pointed out that Zambia, as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), has a legal and moral responsibility to stop cross-border exploitation.
Learning From Botswana
Kalaba praised Botswana’s swift and decisive action, after that country’s authorities launched their own investigations through Interpol.
“Botswana saw the danger and acted,” he said. “Zambia must do the same.”
Why Young Women Are at Risk
With unemployment high and opportunities limited, many young women find recruitment ads irresistible. Kalaba says traffickers understand this — and use it to their advantage.
“They know exactly what our young people want: opportunity,” Kalaba said. “But behind these promises is a trap designed to exploit their hope.”
Kalaba urged Zambia to move urgently to protect its daughters from deceptive recruiters before more lives are shattered.