Death in Dubai: 4. The right hand man

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If there was a big red button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life. And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. A heads up before we start that this episode includes discussion of sex and abuse.

0:50This is the look everyone goes for. Dubai. You need a great hairstyle that goes with every single outfit. So we're doing a side part. We call it a side part bust down. Yeah. The baby hairs. I'm in a salon in East London, having a wig installed, getting the Dubai look, as it's called on TikTok. I'm nearly ready to go there, to find out more about what happened to Monica and her boss, Abby. I'm going to add some curls as well, add some body to it. Have you prepped for Dubai? Love it. To be able to record at the clubs and bars Monica was sent to, I'm going to go in posing as an influencer. So I'm kind of nervous, to be honest.

1:35I think you'll be fine. I mean, you're getting the look. Lots of Shoppe's clients go there, so she knows exactly what I'm after. When it comes to Dubai, it's about how you look. Pretty privileged, you know? Yeah. Pretty privileged is a real thing. When you want to go to a club, they ask you to send pictures of your girls, you and your girls. But it's not just about being pretty. There's another layer to this. I've been warned by other Black women who live in Dubai that I might get looked at in a certain way. Men might just assume women like me are available for a price. And as a journalist, I'm worried about whether I'll even get into the country.

2:19I'm hoping the right look will help me blend in. Oh, yeah. I think hair is important. Yeah. I guess for this, the stakes are even higher because if I look like I don't fit in there, potentially people are going to start asking questions. You know, like, what are you actually doing here? Why have you come? And that's the last thing that we need.

2:47This is World of Secrets, Season 9. Death in Dubai.

2:55From the BBC World Service. I'm Renako Selena.

3:03Episode 4. The Right Hand Man.

3:14I'm on the final leg of my journey into Dubai, having just stopped in Qatar. I have minimal kit with me so that I don't look suspicious. But still, I'm nervous. I don't know if I'll even be let into the country. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dubai. For the local time now is 3.07am. For your safety, please remain seated. Just landed in Dubai. Thank you so much. Thank you.

3:49I clear immigration, but I'm still a bit on edge. When I get to my hotel room, I check for hidden cameras I can't see any signs of them, so I relax a bit And listen back to a voice message Monica's friend, Kira, has sent me If you want to find out how Mona lost her life You have to go where Abi used to take Mona You have to be careful Abi has eyes everywhere in Dubai When you reach Dubai, you have to make sure you act like a tourist You have to be like Mona Mona, before she died, she was staying in Walsan building. Go to Walsan building. You may find some information. Remember what Monica's other friend, Mia, told me?

4:35That the landlord at that Walsan apartment heard Monica fighting with someone on the balcony the night she died? Mia doesn't recall his name and has no idea where he is. But I've got a few numbers of people that I'm hoping might know. Some just hang up on me. But I do get through to this man who knew Monica when she was in Dubai. What I'm trying to establish, OK, yes, she moved to this building and, you know, I heard this and I heard that. But I'm trying to understand who was there on the day when she passed away. He doesn't know the answer to that question. He's now back in Uganda and doesn't have a contact for the landlord.

5:19I try others.

5:26But I can't push too hard, because I'm worried if I do, it'll get back to Avi that I'm here. This is the most nerve-wracking process. Basically being handed from one person to another trusted person to another trusted person, but, you know, there's only so far trust can go. I've been told a lot of African migrants live in the Walsan building, so I decide to just go there to see if I can get any leads without raising suspicion. I approach a guy who seems to be in pyjamas and looks like he's just come out of an apartment in the building. Hi, how are you? I don't know if you can help me. Do you know anyone who lives in Walsan?

6:12I'm looking for, on the 23rd floor, There was a Nigerian landlord who used to run an apartment there, like, like 2022?

6:26No? It's been a while, he says. Even though it was only three years ago, it's a transient place. People don't seem to stay for long. But I do manage to get inside the building. One of the flats is on the market, so we book a viewing for it. It's just a few floors down from the apartment Monica was living in And on the same side

6:56I'm inside the building where Monica passed away It was in an apartment just like this one That she was living in And it was at a balcony Like the one that was standing around to The rails on the balcony are just above waist height it'd be hard to fall or trip. Being here, having seen it online for such a long time, and knowing what happened to her, I can't quite explain how it feels. I mean, sad, emotional, to be honest. I mean, this apartment building was supposed to represent a new start for Monica. Monica, she moved here, having left the control and grip, or so she thought, of the man who brought her to Dubai.

7:49Came here and before long she lost her life and, you know, it was a dream unfulfilled for Monica and I can imagine for many girls like her.

8:12In my hotel room the next morning, I go through Monica's social media, mapping out the locations she tagged herself in. In her posts, she's in one place again and again. It's a glamorous resort hotel on one of Dubai's artificial islands. It's shaped like a palm tree that juts out into the Persian Gulf. Rooms here cost hundreds of dollars a night, and with multiple bars and nightclubs on site, it's well known as the place people come to party. I walk through an archway of bright pink flowers into another part of the hotel complex, an outdoor bar I've seen in Monica's photos. A waiter shows me to a table overlooking the beach, and it's not long before I see a negotiation taking place.

9:05They exchanged the words and the only sentence I could make out was her telling him that she normally takes men back to her grounds for her own safety. And then they walked out together and left. And there are so many other women just like her, sitting and standing around. From what I can tell, these women have come from all around the world. Sex work is illegal in the UAE, but no one here seems to bat an eyelid. None of the staff seems surprised. When I ask a waiter what's going on, he laughs and says, what you think is happening? That's exactly what it is. My next step is to go to clubs, see if I can find people who might have known Monica.

10:05Music is blaring. Men in loud shirts and shiny shoes are seated at tables checking out women as they walk past. It's not long before a man approaches me and asks for a kiss. When I look shocked, he replies, you should know. Later, another guy taps me on the inner thigh. Twice. Unwanted touching, requests for kisses from strangers. It all just makes me wonder, how did Monica feel being here? What must she have experienced? Every few minutes, a guy orders a bottle to his table. A group of dancers parade around him, holding bottles with fizzing fireworks in the air. I head into the ladies' toilets.

10:55They're super glam, very Instagrammable. Monica had lots of pictures taken in them. It's got these white ceilings and marble everywhere. It's really distinctive. It's really weird being here. Literally, they're stomping ground. I feel like I'm walking in Monica's picture. I'm chatting to girls who I've spotted outside, looking for clients, in the hope I might find someone who knew Monica. I'm wary with how much I say. I can't risk anything getting back to Abby. After several nights of doing this, I'm told that a girl who might know Monica will be out tonight. We're put in touch and arranged to meet.

11:40It's so loud in the club, we talk in the ladies' toilets. I go in gently. I ask how her night is going. I want to check that she's comfortable talking about what she's doing here. You understand the game. Guys give money here. A flash money. White girls get more money than black ones. That's Dubai. Then I ask if we can talk about Monica and give her a few details. I know her. It's so sensitive. We can't talk about it. Not here, she says. The attendant keeps giving us suspicious looks and I don't want to get this girl in trouble. So we make a plan to meet up properly in a few days time.

12:28Mona died in 2022. You're the first person that I've met who's still in Dubai. Do you think he's still operating today? He's still operating today, yeah. I'm going to call her Hope. These are her exact words, spoken by an actor. And one piece of information Hope gives me is a game changer. She says Abby travels a lot. He doesn't stay in Dubai all the time. He goes to London. I hear he has a London passport. If he has ties to London, where I'm based, it could help me gather evidence on his operation and might make it easier to hold him to account. Hope wasn't brought to Dubai by Bash to work for Abby.

13:13But one part of her story is the same as Monica's. The job she says she was promised. It was working in the supermarket. it. I said okay. I was very happy, you know, that excitement. When I reached, they collected my passport from me, like maybe two days. I was put out on the street. Two days? Yeah, like two days. They took me on the street, where I had to sell myself. When she saw a chance to escape the gang that brought her, she seized it. Someone told her about Abby. They said he could sort out accommodation for her. She thought she'd found herself a better situation, a place to stay, and she wouldn't have to work for the gang anymore.

14:01She thought all her problems were over, but the reality, she says, was more complicated. He acts like he's your landlord, But in the actual sense, he is your boss. He's so greedy for money. It's like as if he has not seen money. I call him a mafia boss because he deals in many, many shit things. He deals in drugs. His environment, drugs, his place. People of all sort of weird behaviors can be there. So because of influence, girls get into drugs, you know? Hope tells me something new about the way she says Abby controls girls. There are things he does to people spiritually, you know? You cannot tell me out of the blue.

15:00Someone can just say, okay, let me just kill myself. Girls die through sacrifices. Some of them it's stress, you know? Spiritual control. Sacrifices. Obia, Juju. I've heard this before. Some people, they don't believe in those sacrifices. But he does. Hope managed to get away from Abby's place. I can't say too much about how she did that because it could identify her. When that interview will come out, he will say, Which bitch is this? Which fucking bitch went to those people in the news? Hope is now working for herself and at least gets to keep what she earns. I was brought here when I was still young.

15:56Just imagine if it was you. Your family knows you are abroad working. You have to at least come home with something, you know? I would like to leave and I'm planning to leave. But I sat down and I set my goals so that I can at least say, okay, I was into this shit, but at least I managed. Out of that bad thing, I managed to achieve this. I think my future will be something different from what I am now, like the future I want to give my babies. She started investing and has a plan away from all of this. But she's speaking to me now because she wants to warn other young girls. These videos you see on TikTok, pictures you see on Instagram, they are not real.

16:56There is that dark side people don't know. If someone tells you, I have a job for you, I want to take you abroad. To be on the safer side, don't. Because you end up falling from the pan to the real fire. And it's really, really dark. There are weird things. Very weird things.

17:32There's someone who will know more about these weird things Hope's talking about. Someone inside Abbey's network. Someone who is now saying he'll talk. I'm in my hotel room in Dubai, texting a source who will be the first person I'm able to speak to who worked in this operation underneath Abbey. But I'm nervous because he's not responding to my texts. And since morning, I've been trying to negotiate to get him to come and speak with me. I just don't know if he's going to show up. He's been sending me these messages, disappearing messages on WhatsApp, almost as if he's having second thoughts. He's actually told me just how dangerous the network is and that he's not going up against one person, but many.

18:23And I don't know if that's going to be enough to sway him to block me and just not come, which sucks because the information that he will have is really going to change everything.

18:38In the morning, the first thing I do is grab my phone. And there's a message from him. He's actually confirmed that he's happy to meet me. And he's coming to this side of Dubai. Where I'll pick him up. But it's dangerous for us and potentially for him as well, if we're seen together. so we've hatched a little strategy heading down to the basement of this building to see if we can drive it in to the building and then the basement hopefully avoiding the security at the main desk in Dubai. There are cameras and eyes everywhere, which makes it even more difficult.

19:38If there was a big red button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

20:19on a scorching Dubai morning I'm watching out for people watching us I'm in the car with my team and we've picked up this guy who says he was in Abby's inner circle we're driving in an underground car park looking for a space away from the security guards. Is there any parking spot that's nearest the door? Because there's a lot of workers behind us. Go here and then we're right up to the door. We find a spot in the dark, hot basement and head up a back staircase to a private room, hopefully without being seen. Am I right to put this microphone on you? I think we're good. Shall I go? The World Cup Pits?

21:04Yeah. Yesterday, this man said he wanted to do this interview anonymously, for his own safety. But now he's saying we can use his first name, Troy, and his real voice. We go through the risks again, and he's certain. Yeah, because I guess many would wish to know where this information comes from, because it is the right information, and I'm speaking it from the bottom of my heart. So like what would I hide, the truth? The truth comes from visible sources. He's a Ugandan guy in his late 20s, but with a calmness about him that suggests someone older. He's in a cream polo neck and a black beanie with a sparkling stud in one ear.

21:50But the most noticeable thing is his tattoo, in the middle of his forehead, the outline of an anchor. He came to Dubai in 2017 and says he started working for Abi two years later. I met him because I had gone to a nightclub. So he asked me, could you join me? I could sustain your living, I could take care of your accommodation. I could pay you weekly or daily. You could be my home driver. You will see my business when we get home. So I agreed to work with him. He was out of work at the time, and his visa had run out, so he was in overstay. So he attracted me by being kind at first, before I even got to know how the business runs.

22:40Upon reaching his home, I found a new type of animals. And those were human beings who would be taken out for grazing in clubs and work for him. And these were young girls. What is the exact business that Abi is running? I never went so far with books, but is it human trafficking? I would refer it to human trafficking because you are selling humans for money. That's why I refer to it as human trafficking. What was your exact role in Abi's operation? I started as a driver who could drive girls to different places, nightclubs. Later on, I was the operation manager because I could take care of the business when it's outside the nightclubs.

23:38I would face the challenges if the police came along after massive fightings. I would be the person to talk to these girls to convince them to stay in the business. According to Troy, he was in a position to know far more about Abbey's business than anyone I've spoken to so far. And he supports a lot of what Kira, Mia and Hope have told me about how Abbey uses short-term tourist visas and how he racks up their debts. But I want to know more about how Avi scouts girls and what he tells them. He's like a computer. He doesn't rest. He's always online trying to see where money is. He would use TikTok to see the type of girls he would want to work with in Dubai.

24:31Sometimes he communicates with white men and asks them what type of girls they want. And he'll be able to find what his clients want. He loves dark-skinned girls, young girls that are wanted by rich men. He has boys on ground back in Uganda. He could be paying, and some of these are from his family, cousins, friends. He would describe the type of girl he wants them to look for. They start getting the girl ready. He processes the passport. He applies for the visa. Then the visa is processed within three days. Thinking back to our undercover phone call with Bash, the man we've been told brought Monica and some of her friends to Dubai, I realised that Bash's connections, his access to Uganda's official ID register, must have played a big part in this process.

25:27But from what Troy's just told me, it sounds like Bash wasn't the only person scouting girls to send to Abbey. And he's not the only one convincing girls to travel. According to Troy, Abiy sometimes takes a personal hand in that too.

26:08expensive cars, you'd meet rich men, you'd live a luxury life, so they are convinced in that way. Once they get into Dubai, what is the first experience they have with Abe like? So for the first days, he takes them to different malls to buy them clothing, to make them feel comfortable. He takes them around the restaurants to have nice food, to brainwash them before he sticks them to the business. What happens to girls who refuse to kind of continue doing what he wants them, what Abe wants them to do? If you're not willing to work with him, because there are certain girls that used to come and find out the situation is not as it was told.

26:57So those who would say that that I'm not ready to provide sex, it would keep you inside the room until when you agree that, okay, let me work. The question some people seem to have when they hear accounts like this is why don't the victims just leave? Just get away, go to the police. And Troy, who says he has known lots of women in this situation, makes it crystal clear. These girls are traumatised. You can't go home. You know that you're hunted by the police. because you are an overstay, you end up drinking every day, using any type of drug that comes along your way in order to survive. Yeah.