Dubai, United Arab Emirates: A BBC investigation has unmasked Charles Mwesigwa, a Ugandan man accused of running a sex trafficking and prostitution ring out of Dubai’s most glamorous neighbourhoods, where vulnerable young women are allegedly exploited in degrading acts.
Mwesigwa, who claims to be a former London bus driver, was filmed by undercover reporters offering women for sex parties at a starting price of $1,000 (Shs3.8 million). He boasted that “many can do pretty much everything” clients wanted, including extreme fetishes.
The BBC World Service exposé reveals that young Ugandan women were lured to Dubai with promises of supermarket or hotel jobs, only to be trapped in debt bondage and forced into sex work under Mwesigwa’s network. One victim, identified as “Mia,” told reporters she was told she owed him over $2,000 in her first weeks and described violent threats when she tried to leave.
In testimony, survivors recounted horrific experiences with wealthy European clients who demanded abusive acts, including one man who “poops on girls and tells them to eat it.” Others described offers of thousands of dollars to endure gang rape, humiliation, and recordings of them eating faeces.
Two women linked to Mwesigwa — including Ugandan national Monic Karungi — died after falling from high-rise apartments in Dubai. Their deaths were ruled suicides, but families insist police should have investigated further.
BBC reporters traced Mwesigwa to Jumeirah Village Circle, a middle-class Dubai neighbourhood, where he openly admitted he ran a network of more than 25 girls. “I could win the lottery, a million pounds, but I would still do it. It’s become part of me,” he told undercover journalists.
Mwesigwa denies trafficking or coercion, insisting he merely helps women find accommodation through landlords and that they “follow him to parties” because of his wealthy contacts. Dubai police, asked to comment on the allegations, did not respond to the BBC.
Uganda’s State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs, Hon. Balaam Barugahara, has demanded Mwesigwa’s arrest through Interpol, calling his alleged exploitation of Ugandan girls “despicable.”
Read the full investigative story on BBC here
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