Death in Dubai: 5. The reality of ‘Porta Potty’

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. Before we start, this episode includes discussion of some disturbing events, including sexual abuse and strong language including racist terms.

0:49I'll give you a heads up when it's coming so you can skip ahead if you prefer.

0:58The team continues to keep eyes on the target and further updates will follow We have a surveillance team watching out for Abi We understand he's moved his girls out of the cramped apartment in Al-Basha where Monica was living and now he's based here, in this upmarket area of Dubai near the marina So we'll try and establish some kind of pattern. At the property itself, try and identify Charles himself. Charles Mwesigwa is his name, but everyone in Dubai calls him Abi. The team have just done a drive past. There are two vehicles parked in the garage. We've seen Charles going in and out and taxiing the girls away from the accommodation.

1:47They keep watch for a few days. What we have seen on a regular basis, so sort of like three times now, is Charles driving or being driven in B2. So that's the blue Chinese model SUV with two girls, at least two girls in the vehicle. It kind of blows my mind because almost exactly three years since Monica died, it looks like he's still running this operation.

2:19This is World of Secrets. Season 9. Death in Dubai. From the BBC World Service. I'm Renaco Salina.

2:36Episode 5. The reality of Porta Potty.

2:54It's my fourth night in Dubai and I'm getting a really good understanding of this dark world that Monica was caught up in. Most nights I've been going to the clubs where I'm told Abby forced her to go and staying there till the early hours of the morning. I'm pretty exhausted. So tonight I'm staying in and online. I'm flicking back through Monica's social media accounts The stunning pictures of her The clips where she looks like she's living this glamorous lifestyle And I start going through the comments people left after her death went viral And after she got labelled a Dubai Port-a-Potty girl They wrote things like this.

3:47It's true. Shit happens. She's a hoe. It's a consensual act, meaning they're given a choice. Many people always want to make fast cash and live a glamorous and luxurious life. It's nobody's fault but their own. These parents must really be suffering to discover the daughter's debauched life. I feel their pain. It's so far from what I've learned about Monica So far from what I'd heard happen to her And I know how devastating it is for her family And friends to read these kinds of things I remember Monica's niece, Rona Saying she wondered if lies were being spread online deliberately And she even released her own video To try to correct the narrative

4:41What I was trying to say, to tell people to cool down. They are talking nonsense on her and saying many things on her. She was like an influencer that she have killed herself. They should stop talking too much about her because they don't know what exactly happened. Why did her death go viral? Why did people repeat these rumours about her? How do you think stories on the internet become sensationalized in that way? People like me, of course. No, I'm just joking.

5:19This is Riley Mobbs, one of the TikTokers who covered Monica's death. He's a content creator from Cedar Rapids, America's Midwest, and he's also a rapper and musician. When I started doing the true crime videos, I think what made them so popular is I found stories that a lot of people didn't know about. Riley, like most people online and Monica's friends in Dubai, calls her by her social handle and nickname Mona Kiz. Mona Kiz was a young beautiful woman from Uganda who became enthralled with the glitz and glamour of becoming an influencer. She began taking even more trips to Dubai. The first time I ever heard about Mona Kiz was on Reddit.

6:03And I'm just looking at all these stories. And I scrolled past one, and it was Mona. And she was there, and she was beautiful, like breathtaking model. And then I remember going to her social media, and there were like a lot of posts that were her traveling and living like this luxurious life. and most people that are victims of those types of stories, it's usually not someone that looks like they're on top of the world. It was just, whoa, like, what is going on? This is like a real mystery. In his video, Riley didn't actually call Monica a port-a-potty. It was nowhere near as salacious or cruel as some of the other content out there.

6:44But to his thousands of followers, he repeats the rumour that Monica killed herself because of shame after in his words. Mona and her friend were forced to do terrible sexual acts and some of them are unspeakable. And it was all filmed and released on the internet. When this happened, Mona was destroyed. Where did this come from? Where did this thought come from? Yeah, so there was a rumor. And like I said, I feel like this whole story just feels like a rumor now. That was one of the things that was thrown around that she had been driven to do these nasty things and for money and it was filmed and that that video was put out.

7:18and then it kind of made sense to me. If I was forced to do something that degrading and it was filmed and put out for my family and friends to see, maybe that would drive someone to take their own life. Were you ever able to confirm that that was Mona in the video? I'm not able to confirm almost anything in this story because there was not any official news sources that had any information. If you don't know everything, the Internet's going to try to come fill the pieces or fill the missing links in, and I think that's a bad thing. but there's also been lots of cases solved. You know, victims have gotten their justice because of people like me on the internet.

7:55So I'm hard pressed to say that the internet sleuthing and reporting should stop. But I'm also conflicted because we don't know what's true and what's not. So you could be spreading false information without even knowing. You know, it's really, the internet is, like I said, it's the wild, wild west and there's really no jurisdiction on the information that can spread. I go deeper into this wild, wild west, as Riley calls it, to find out where the whole Dubai port-a-potty narrative came from. How did it even start and then end up being linked to Monica? When I go down that rabbit hole, the earliest mention I can find is from 2003, when American comedian Dave Chappelle is mocking the disgraced R &B singer and producer R.

8:46Kelly.

9:00R. Kelly's now serving a 30-year jail sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering, with a further conviction for child sex abuse. By the time he was convicted, The Port-a-Potty thing had taken on a life of its own. And it's now firmly linked to Dubai. Dubai Port-a-Potty. A pretty trending topic across social media platforms. I have just bared witness to that Port-a-Potty video. Oh my God, do you not watch it? Is this what it's come down to for a Birkin bag? My eyes are on all of you influencers that are living in Puba. Yeah? There's an urban dictionary entry for Port-a-Potties that dates back to 2012.

9:42Expensive escorts bought by rich Arab and European men to go on yacht parties for$30 ,000 plus a piece. In reality, these women are brought onto these boats to get shit and pissed on, hence the name Porta-Potties. The entry even tells you how to identify a Porta-Potti. If a friend of the female kind is always posting pictures of shopping sprees in Dubai and on a yacht drinking champagne in any UAE or Saint-Tropez area, she is a port-a-potty. By this definition, half the women on Instagram must be port-a-potties. The whole thing feels like a digital witch hunt. If this is really happening, it involves two people.

10:27So why are only the women being shamed? Why don't the clients face the same vitriol? If you're a rich Arab in the UAE and you want to see how low women from the West will sink in order to make a few bucks? It's very simple. There's an Instagram account, Tag the Sponsor, that tags women, accusing them of being Dubai porta-potties. They even trick some into recording videos, saying what they're willing to do for money. Tag the Sponsor gives us a closer look into what these Instagram models would do for money. They would expose these women, destroying the little career they have left. I do think it's funny.

11:07what they're doing, but I have a very sick and twisted sense of humour. Digging deeper, I find an incel thread on the notorious online forum 4chan. A British woman is being shamed. And actors reading their words. What do you think a beautiful woman like this is doing? Getting married to a British man? Having kids? Doing anything wholesome? Maybe at worst she could be a stripper, right? Wrong. She's a Dubai porter potty. It's not only women being shamed. Another poster writes, We need to get this out to the mainstream. Make the public hate these filthy Arabs. And the hashtags are also horrendous.

11:52Hashtag Ahmed has the laxatives ready. Gross. Prominent Emirati TikTokers have poured scorn on the whole idea, distancing themselves from the narrative. I can assure you that this fetish is not a very common one among us Arab men. This ain't something a normal human being, rather a whole nation craves on. You do understand that by making these statements, you are racist. You are generalizing every Arab man in Dubai. This is not only racist, but it is disgusting.

12:29The rumor has taken off. It's in rap songs, comedy skits, trending sounds on TikTok. It's thrown around in rap battles and freestyles. It's everywhere. Hey, Habibi, come on to Dubai.

12:49Dubai, Dubai, Dubai for the party. So when we were in Dubai, obviously we went and saw the Burj Khalifa. Unbelievable. But I heard that when it was built, it wasn't connected to the sewage system. They have like these poop trucks and that's why you shit on a hooker's chest. This crude online joke isn't so funny when you speak to women experiencing the ripple effects of it. There is a man who used to call me a toilet and I had to play along actually to his fantasy because he was paying a lot of money. This is Lexi. Like the other woman I've spoken to, she says she was tricked into coming to the UAE and forced into sex work.

13:37But she managed to escape and now helps rescue other women. So she has insights on the client based on all the women she supports, as well as her own horrific experience. Lexi hadn't been there long when a Russian client sent her a proposition. I should say, this is quite a hard listen, so skip on around four minutes if you don't want to hear it. This client offered her a significant sum of money for violent and forced sex with a group of men, and extra if she'd do an additional horrible request.

14:18He's like, if it is a yes, we can buy ice cream, cons. we can buy ice cream cones shit in them and we watch you eat and that will be more 5 ,000 if you will eat our shit while we are recording you that wasn't the only time she was asked for these extreme acts each time it happened she understood more about what was going on that for the clients, it was about power and humiliation. Every time I said that I wouldn't want to do that, it seemed to get them more interested. I don't know how that psychology works, but every time I would show like, ew, that's not something I want to consider. Then they would be like, persistent.

15:18They want somebody who is going to cry and scream and run. And that somebody should be a black person. Lexi says requests like this were just one aspect of the extreme racism she experienced in Dubai. Black monkeys. That is one of the terms they used. Oh, they like telling black girls to get on their knees. and there was this one client who asked me if I was comfortable putting on an Ankara thing so that when he rips it off me and whips my ass, he can feel the satisfaction of... Yeah, like that's something that used to turn him on. Lexi tells me she called the police several times, trying to get help to get out of there.

16:12Every time I would try to explain, they would be like, you Africans cause problems for each other, we don't want to get involved. And they would hang up. The same thing Michael and Troy said. The police showing no interest in investigating.

16:35So now I know the most extreme part of Dubai Port-a-Potti definitely happens. and for those forced into it, it sounds like there's little help to get out. When I speak to Mia, Monica's friend, she tells me at least one of Abby's clients demands it. Abby has so many clients. They do weird stuff. But there's this one client. He poops on girls. He poops and he tells them to eat the shit. Those are the fantasies he wants. He doesn't care if you're sick, he doesn't care. And if they tried to say no... Abby would force you. You dare refuse, he would tell you. You know how to make money? But forcing people to do that kind of shit?

17:24Eat poo? But if Monica was sent to do this, Mia thinks she would have refused. Because you can't force Monica to do something she doesn't want. There's no evidence that Monica ever did these acts. But the internet didn't need any. The witch hunt mentality meant that she was labelled the Port-A-Potty girl anyway. People said stuff they don't know. Maybe just because they want likes, views. Why did they use their platform for negative stuff? Why didn't they use the chance to ask why she died? Why are people so mean?

18:04Behind the internet's Dubai Port-A-Potty narrative, lies a reality that's much more sinister. It's nothing to do with influencers willingly doing this for money. For the woman I've spoken to, there's no choice. It's something they're forced to do. I can tell you a little bit about what I have found so far. I tell Riley, one of the TikTokers who repeated the rumours about Monica, about what I've uncovered. Her real name was Monica Karunji. She went to Dubai, according to her family, for a job and ultimately ended up being involved. Riley asks how she died. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to say exactly what happened that night.

18:48But I tell him what I can reveal. The circumstances that led up to her death. Identifying the first man who arranged for her to leave Uganda. And if our undercover operation goes as planned, I'll also expose the pimps she worked for in Dubai. I'm sitting here awestruck, like, you know, I'm at a loss for words myself when it comes to that. So when Mona died, the comments were really, really evil. I mean, hideous, hideous things. And I guess personally, one of the things I'm hoping is that after this investigation is finished and released, I'm hoping that, you know, with your platform, you might join me in correcting the narrative.

19:34Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah, no, I definitely would make a follow-up video, especially with, like, you know, all the new information we have and stuff. Like, absolutely. For Monica's friends and family, these false rumours really hurt. It was like their moniker was being taken away from them a second time. So correcting that narrative will really matter to them. When I spent time with Rona and the family at their farm The other thing they pressed on me Is they wanted to know what had happened to her body Where's her final resting place? Even if she died in pieces Then we should want our pieces to bury in her country Just we need to bring her back in her motherland And we're no longer yearning to know what exactly happened to her And I'm going to do my best to help them.

20:51is 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.

21:10Michael, Monica's elder relative who was in the UAE when she died, was told by the police that he had 21 days to raise the money to repatriate her. The family did their best, but it was a large sum, and sadly they couldn't manage it in time. And Michael was told later by the Ugandan consulate that Monica had been buried somewhere in Dubai. Since meeting her family, I've been trying to find her grave. With the help of my Arabic-speaking colleagues, we found someone official who might be able to help. Our family didn't have money to bring the body home. Where is she buried? Is there a headstone marker?

21:52And I'll go through the script basically when I'm on the phone with him. Shall we try? We've been warned not to tell this person we're journalists. So we're just going to say that we're calling on behalf of the family. We go through the plan. So we have a name. We've got our name. Monica Karunji. And do I say where she's from? Uh-huh, she's from Uganda. After lots of back and forth, the contact finds Monica's name and the date of burial, the 26th of July, nearly three months after her death, and says she's buried in Alcacese Cemetery. We're told her grave is in a section for unknowns, which is where unclaimed bodies of migrant workers often end up, and warned that the gate into that area is probably going to be locked.

22:42but maybe someone will take pity on us and open it. What flowers do you think would be best? Maybe we can go with just plain white, pure white. Pure white? Yeah. I won't get into the cemetery if I say I'm a journalist. I'm just going to go in with flowers to simply pay my respects. So you've got roses? With some green, I think. Yeah, that's lovely. OK, ma 'am, no problem. Yeah, I just might need to shift some stuff over. Does anyone have a pen for the card? Yeah. We set off, and as we drive out of the city centre, the landscape shifts from skyscrapers and malls to lower-rise buildings. We're on our way to Alkazai Cemetery.

23:30We've been told that this is where Monica was laid to rest, but in a special section of it called the Unknown section. It's where people who didn't manage to get repatriated in their death are laid to rest. So I'm hoping I can find her or find someone that will help me to locate her. As I stare out the window, my mind goes back to Uganda. The sense of responsibility I feel towards Monica's loved ones hits me hard. I remember leaving Monica's family and one of the key things that they wanted was to know where she was laid to rest. So this is really important for them. There's almost a sense of lack of closure because no one's received the body.

24:20We don't have a grave number, so we're going to have to look around, hopefully without raising suspicion. The problem is that it's an official site in Dubai and anything official here is going to have high security. I was even told about the need for a police letter. So I just don't know if we'll even get access or even be let in.

24:49Are you ready? Yeah. We're just coming up the gate now. There's a barrier in place, but it's open. Oh, gosh. Okay. Yeah, let's just drive. In. Okay. Wow, okay. We are inside Alkazai Cemetery. Burial areas A, B and C. There's signs on either side. The cemetery is huge. Graves as far as the eye can see. and there's a maze of roads through the different sections. I mean, there are just so many headstones here. So many of them don't have names on them. And it's just impossible to know where to start. God, if only we had a grave number, because they do have these little signs saying, like, B22.

25:52It literally is like a needle in a haystack. I think my next step has to be to ask someone. I was told that we're not supposed to go into the unknown area of this cemetery. So potentially, if I do ask someone, we'll be asked to leave. The heat is so intense, our equipment keeps switching off, and we realise we're starting to attract attention. We get back in the car. There's some people at the gate who've definitely clocked us. Yeah. I feel like people are seeing us. We drive away from the guards to an area we haven't been to yet. And there we find something. Locked gates. Locked gate. How frustrating.

26:40It would be nice to lay eyes on her grave. And we're so close. And there's this kind of brick wall. A wall with a locked gate. and beyond it, what looks like more graves. I think she's here. I think she has to be. I think she's here.