When Fred Mugabo (name changed for privacy) received an offer to work in sales for a Chinese company in late 2023, the deal seemed too good to ignore. With the promise of a monthly salary of over $2,500, free housing, food, and internet, along with the promise of commissions and career growth, the job looked like the real deal. ALSO READ: Rwanda steps up repatriation of citizens trafficked to Southeast Asia The opportunity came through a former university acquaintance he had met while studying in China in 2019. “He presented it as if it was genuine. He told me I would be working in the marketing department of the same company for which he worked. I trusted him, and went ahead with the applications,” Mugabo narrates. The 24-year-old didn’t know that he was going to end up scammed and stranded in Laos, a southeast Asian country, and that he would need the government of Rwanda to intervene to rescue him. Last week, the government of Rwanda said it had begun repatriating citizens trafficked to southeast Asia, with 10 victims already returned from Myanmar and efforts underway to bring home at least five more. Mugabo says he had to pay for both the plane ticket and visa fees, as opposed to how things should have been. “Usually, the person arranging your travel promises to cover those costs. But in my case, it was different because I was approached by someone I knew, and he made it seem like he was just helping out a friend. So, I ended up covering all the expenses myself because I didn’t want to seem like a burden,” he narrates. To make things easier, his acquaintance connected him with a Rwandan “agent” who could assist with the visa application process in case things got complicated. “I thought he was just being generous. He even linked me up with another Rwandan who was also travelling to China, so we could go together, just to make sure I arrive in China.” ALSO READ: Clamping down on human trafficking in Rwanda Upon landing at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Mugabo was met by his acquaintance, who then accompanied him to the Xishuangbanna train station. From there, he was instructed to take another train to Boten, an eight hour journey. “He didn’t travel with me from there. He said he had some things to take care of and promised to join me in two days. He gave me the details of another train I needed to take once I arrived in Boten, along with the contact of someone I was to reach out to upon entering Laos (another eight hour drive on the train),” he recounts. When entering Laos, they were required to purchase a visa at the border for $50, which would be valid for one month. The person he was given as a contact by his colleague met him and drove him to the company where he was supposed to work. When they reached, that’s when the nightmare began. Immediately upon arrival, his passport was confiscated. The promised salary of $2,000+ dropped to just $1,000, which also turned out to be so hard to get. To make matters worse, Mugabo found out that he was not going to work in the marketing department of a company, but rather, he had been trafficked into a cryptocurrency scam syndicate that lures people to invest into it via social media. ALSO READ: Over 100 Rwandans trafficked in three years - RIB “All we have to do is text different people from social media platforms. We pitch between the two schemes, and see which one they fall for. We had to make sure that we get their phone number, and we convince them to invest in the company and all the money the client invests goes to the syndicate,” he said. Mugabo said that sometimes, a client (scam victim) can invest from $ 100,000 or more. “And when someone spends more than a week without getting a new client, they start to deduct you $ 5 everyday as they say that you’re not working. And when it goes on for more than three months without getting anyone to invest, you start working for free. And this is so common because it is really hard to get anyone to fall for a scam.” Mugabo also said that when you continue to work without bringing in any client, the syndicate tends to sell you to a different company, so that they at least make some money off you. “Because of the pressure, we all tend to meet the requirements because everyone’s worst mare is being sold to another company in Myanmar, which is always worse, with working overtime, and a very minimal wage,” he says. Mugabo also said that the Rwandans in Myanmar, are the ones the government managed to identify and bring back because their situation is ‘really’ worse. “These syndicates are registered as legitimate companies, so the Laos government is not fully aware that hundreds of foreigners are actually being exploited there (Nigerians, Kenyans, South Africans, Afghans, among others),” he said. “Whenever government officials visit, operations are temporarily shut down and the place is staged to look like a regular office. We hide from the officials because most of us don’t have passports, and our visas expired long ago,” he added. Rwandan government Spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the repatriations are being carried out in partnership with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The total number of Rwandan nationals affected is not yet well established, but reports seem to have led to a renewed focus on human trafficking and illegal recruitment schemes targeting young Rwandans.
