Shocking details in the sex gang scandal

A gang forcing vulnerable women into prostitution has been exposed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. According to a BBC investigation, the gang is led by former London bus driver Charles Mwesigwa. The women, lured from Uganda with the promise of jobs, were forced into sex work, forced into debt, and subjected to violence. It was alleged that some clients subjected the women to humiliating and violent demands, and that police remained indifferent despite complaints. Two women linked to Mwesigwa reportedly died after falling from high-rise buildings under suspicious circumstances. Although the deaths were recorded as suicides, the families are demanding an investigation. While Mwesigwa denies the accusations, the investigation has produced witness testimonies and documents corroborating the network.

The full article published on the BBC is as follows:

Charles Mwesigwa, who identified himself as a former London bus driver, told our undercover reporter he could arrange women for a sex party. He claimed the women, with a starting price of $1,000, could do "almost anything" the client wanted.

Rumors of wild sex parties have been circulating in this emirate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for years.

The hashtag #Dubaiportapotty has been viewed more than 450 million times on TikTok, where parodies and speculative exposes are shared about women secretly financing their lavish lifestyles by fulfilling excessive sexual demands.

BBC World Service's investigation revealed that the truth is much darker than that.

Young Ugandan women said they did not expect to have to do sex work for Mwesigwa.

Some said they went to the UAE thinking they would work in jobs like supermarkets or hotels.

One of the women who fell into Mwesigwa's trap, nicknamed "Mia" to protect her identity, said at least one client regularly asked her to defecate.

Mwesigwa denies the allegations, claiming he only finds accommodation for the women through hosts and that they come to the parties spontaneously because of their wealthy Dubai connections.

However, investigation revealed that two women linked to Mwesigwa died after falling from high-rise buildings.

Their deaths were recorded as suicides, but their families and friends believe police should have investigated further.

Mwesigwa told us that the incidents were being investigated by Dubai police and that we should contact them for information. However, the police did not respond to our requests.

One of the women who lost their lives, Monic Karungi, had come to Dubai from western Uganda.

The woman who shared the same house with him, whom we nicknamed "Keira," said that Monic lived in an apartment with dozens of other women who worked for Mwesigwa in 2022.

"It was like a market there… There were about 50 girls. Monic was unhappy because she didn't get what she expected," Keira said.

Monic's sister Rita said she thought her job in Dubai would be working in a supermarket.

“When I told him I wanted to return home, he [Mwesigwa] became violent,” Mia says.

He adds that when he first arrived, Mwesigwa told him he owed him $2,700, and within two weeks, the debt had doubled.

"Your airline ticket, your visa, your accommodation, your food... It's all money. That means you have to work really, really hard, begging guys to come and sleep with you," Mia explained.

A relative, nicknamed "Michael," said Monic had quickly become over $27,000 in debt to Mwesigwa.

Michael said he received tearful voicemails from Monic.

Mia explained that most of the clients were white Europeans, and some requested extreme fetishes.

He explained the matter quietly, "There was a customer who was defecating on the girls. Then he was forcing them to eat the feces."

A woman named "Lexi", who said she was tricked by another network, told similar stories and said the "porta potty" requests were common.

"One customer said, 'Let's pay 15,000 UAE dirhams ($4,000) and we'll gang-rape you, urinate on your face, beat you. Let's give you another 5,000 dirhams ($1,361) and we'll record you eating feces,'" she reported.

Lexi said she thought there was a racial dimension to her experience:

"Each time I said I wouldn't do it, they got more and more interested. There had to be someone crying, screaming, running away for them. And that someone, in their eyes, had to be a Black woman."

Lexi claimed she contacted the police for help, but they told her, "You Africans are causing trouble for each other. We don't want to get involved," and hung up.

We asked Dubai police about this claim but received no response.

Lexi eventually escaped to Uganda and now helps women in similar situations.

Finding Charles Mwesigwa was not easy.

We could only find one photo of him online, taken from behind. He used different names on social media.

But thanks to open-source intelligence, undercover investigations, and information from a former network member, we found him in Jumeirah Village Circle, a middle-class neighborhood in Dubai.

We sent our undercover reporter under the guise of a promoter looking for women for lavish parties.

The purpose of this was to confirm the sources' description of Mwesigwa's work as "procuring women for degrading sexual acts".

Mwesigwa was calm and confident as he explained his work.

“We have about 25 girls,” she said. “Most of them are open-minded… They can do just about anything the clients want.”

He also revealed the price: starting at $1,000 per woman per night and going up for "crazy stuff."

He invited our reporter to a "sample night."

When asked about the "Dubai porta potty" he said: "I told you, they're all open-minded. And when I say open-minded… I'll send you the craziest one."

During the conversation, he mentioned that he had previously worked as a bus driver in London. We found evidence of this profession listed in an official document from East London in 2006.

He also told our reporter that he enjoyed this job:

"Even if I won £1,000,000 in the lottery, I would still do this job… It's become a part of me now."

Troy, who said he was Mwesigwa's former operations manager, explained how the network worked.

Troy alleged that Mwesigwa bribed security guards to get his women into nightclubs to recruit clients.

"I saw sex like I've never seen before in my life. It doesn't matter what women go through as long as rich men are happy... Women have no escape. They see musicians, football players, heads of state."

According to Troy, Mwesigwa uses the names of his employees to evade detection.

They are not just drivers. The cars and apartments are leased to them, so Mwesigwa's name does not appear anywhere on the documents.

On April 27, 2022, Monic shared a selfie from Dubai's expat-filled Al Barsha district. He died four days later. He had been in the emirate for just four months.

According to Mia, before his death, Monic and Mwesigwa argued frequently.

Monic was now refusing to give in to his demands and was trying to break free from the network.

"She had found a real job. She was so excited. She thought she was going to get her freedom, she was going to get her life back because this was a real job now, she wasn't going to sleep with men," Mia said.

Monic moved to another apartment 10 minutes away. On May 1, 2022, she fell from the balcony of this apartment.

Monic's relative Michael, who was in the UAE at the time of her death, tried to find answers about the death.

He said police found drugs and alcohol in the apartment where Monic fell and only found his fingerprints on the balcony.

He obtained Monic's death certificate from the hospital, but it did not state the cause of death.

His family was also unable to obtain a toxicology report (a forensic test designed to detect the presence of toxins, including narcotics and stimulants, in biological samples).

A Ghanaian man living in the building was more helpful, Michael said.

This man took Michael to another apartment and introduced him to the man he said was Monic's boss.

Michael saw hookah smoke inside the room, white powder he thought was cocaine on the table, and women having sex with customers on the couches.

She alleged that she found the man we previously identified as Mwesigwa in bed with two women and when she tried to drag him to the police, Mwesigwa said:

"I've been in Dubai for 25 years. Dubai is mine... You can't report me. I'm above the embassy, ​​I am the embassy. [Monic] is not the first to die. And he won't be the last."

Mia and Keira said they witnessed the conversation and confirmed the words. When we asked Mwesigwa about it, he denied it.

Monic's death is eerily similar to Kayla Birungi's.

Kayla, another Ugandan woman living in the same neighbourhood, died after falling from a high-rise building in 2021. Evidence suggests that this apartment building was managed by Charles Mwesigwa.

The landlord's number shared by Kayla's family turned out to be one of Mwesigwa's numbers.

Troy confirmed that he was running the apartment. Four women we spoke to as part of the investigation confirmed this.

Kayla's family, like Monic, heard that her death was linked to alcohol and drugs. However, a toxicology report seen by the BBC shows that no substances were found in Kayla's system at the time of her death.

Kayla's body was sent to her hometown, but Monic's body was not given to her family.

Research has revealed that he is likely buried in the "Unknowns" section of Dubai's Al Qusais Cemetery, a section often filled with unmarked graves of migrants whose bodies cannot be repatriated.

Monic and Kayla were part of a larger, unofficial line extending from Uganda to the Gulf.

As Uganda grapples with rising youth unemployment, going abroad for work, particularly to the Gulf states, has become a major industry, generating $1.2 billion in tax revenue annually.

But these opportunities can carry serious risks.

Ugandan activist Mariam Mwiza says she has rescued more than 700 people from the Gulf:

"For example, someone is told, 'You will work in a supermarket.' Then that person is sold as a prostitute."

For Monic's family, grief is now intertwined with fear. They fear that if nothing is done, other families will suffer the same loss.

"We are all looking at Monic's death now," said her relative Michael.

"But who will care for the girls who are still alive? They are still there. They are still suffering."

The BBC asked Charles "Abbey" Mwesigwa about all the allegations. He denied running an illegal prostitution ring.

"These are all false allegations. I'm just a party that invites big spenders to my table. That's why so many girls come to my table. That's it," he said, adding:

"When Monic died, he had his passport with him. So no one was asking him for money for tickets or anything else. I hadn't seen him for four or five weeks before he died.

"I knew [Monic and Kayla], but they were renting apartments from different landlords. If no one was arrested in either house, and no one from the landlords was let in, there was a reason. Both incidents were investigated by the Dubai police, so maybe they can help you."

The BBC contacted Al Barsha Police Station to request to see the files of Monic Karungi and Kayla Birungi. However, police did not respond to this request or to the allegations of an investigation into the deaths.

The BBC has not been able to see toxicology reports on Monic Karungi and has not been able to contact the owner of the flat where she lived before her death.

Source: BBC Turkish