Promised Work, Deployed to War: How
Bangladeshi Youth Are Being Trafficked into Russia’s Military to fight against
Ukraine.
On 8th May, when four young men from Patgram,
a bordering village in the district of Lalmonirhat, boarded a flight to Moscow,
they believed they were heading towards well-paying jobs at a garment factory.
Each of their families had paid between 9.5 and 10 lakh
taka to two local brokers for that promise. Since their arrival in Moscow, the
families have received no contact from them. According to reports now emerging
from multiple sources, these four men, along with many others, have been
conscripted into the Russian military and are serving on the frontlines of the
war in Ukraine.
The Patgram case is not an isolated incident.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment confirmed
in a press conference on 2nd June 2026 that at least 30 Bangladeshi
youths had been trafficked to the Russian military through three recruiting
agencies. Keep in mind that these are the numbers we the government managed to
track, the untracked numbers are unknown. The government’s response was to
cancel those agencies’ licences which has been widely criticised as
insufficient, given that the actual scale of the problem appears considerably
larger.
A joint investigation by Fortify Rights, a
Thailand-based human rights organisation, and Truth Hounds, based in Ukraine,
has documented at least 104 Bangladeshi nationals currently serving in Russia’s
military. According to the report, none enlisted voluntarily or knowingly apart
from one particular individual who posts regular updates on his youtube
channel, his justification for joining was the pay.
These recruitment method follows a recognisable pattern:
young men are approached with promises of employment as cleaners, data-entry
operators, or garment workers, with salaries far exceeding what the domestic
market offers. Basically offers which are too good to be true. Some are even
sent to Russia on student visas. The deception reaches its most critical point
upon their arrival in Russia: as they exit airport, they are presented with
documents in Russian and are asked to sign. These signatures, which are made
without any understanding of the language are in reality enlistment contracts
for military service. By the time the reality of their situation becomes
apparent, passports are usually confiscated and any means of return effectively
cut off.
Once conscripted, the conditions are reported to be
severe. With no military background, and being given one or two days of basic
training, sometimes limited to firing a few gunshots. Many are reportedly
placed at the front of advancing units to absorb fire ahead of trained soldiers
like canon fodder. Others are assigned to clearing bodies from minefields,
navigating known minefield terrain on foot. Those who dare to object, are said
to face collective punishment: confinement outdoors in freezing temperatures,
denial of food, and threats of being shot. A number have been reported to have
already died under these conditions.
The phenomenon is not unique to Bangladeshis. Nepal is
widely identified as the most severely affected nation in South Asia from such
practices, with estimates placing the number of Nepalis drawn into this system
as electricians, hotel workers, and general labourers at around 15,000. Our
neighbouring country India has also been implicated; their Supreme Court has
issued directions for a formal investigation into the trafficking networks
involved, and intelligence agencies have reportedly dismantled several such
rings.
What connects these cases is a structural vulnerability
that transcends any single actor or incident. In many countries with high
unemployment, large migrant worker populations, and persistent economic poverty,
the promise of a well-paying overseas job carries a lot of weight. Traffickers
operating within this space exploit not only economic desperation but also
informational asymmetries by targeting the lack the means to verify job offers,
understand foreign-language contracts, or access legal assistance once inside
Russia. So long as the war in Ukraine continues, Russia’s demand for frontline
manpower appears to sustain the commercial incentive for such recruitment,
regardless of its legality under international law.
The institutional response in Bangladesh has, to date,
been limited in scope. Revoking the licences of a handful of agencies does
little to address the informal channels of personal networks, sub-agents, and
social media recruiters through which many of these departures are generally arranged.
Nor does it account for Bangladeshi nationals already residing in European
countries on refugee/asylum status, have also been approached and lured towards
Russia from there.
Observers and advocates have called for more substantive
state intervention: direct diplomatic engagement with Moscow, a temporary
restriction on travel to Russia under employment or study pretexts, and a
broader crackdown on the recruitment networks still operating within Bangladesh.
Whether the government will have the will to move in that direction remains to
be seen.
For now, an unknown number of Bangladeshi young men
whose families parted with savings of ten lakh taka or more for the prospect of
a better life for them, find themselves on a distant frontline in a war they
never chose, in a country whose language they cannot speak, and fighting for a
side they were never asked to join. And frankly speaking, a war they don’t care
about.
Written by:
Shafqat Aziz
Barrister (Lincoln's Inn)
LLM Corporate Law, NTU
Industry & Alumni Fellow, NTU
PGDL, UWE Bristol
LLB, BPP University
Accredited Civil-Commercial Mediator
(ADR-ODR International)
First published by Counterpoint BD: Promised Work, Deployed to War: How Bangladeshi Youth Are Being Trafficked into Russia’s Military to fight against Ukraine.
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