Bangladeshi migrant workers lured to Russia with promises of civilian jobs were forced onto the front lines of the war in Ukraine, according to an Associated Press investigation that interviewed three men who say they escaped Russian military control after months at the front.
One victim, Maksudur Rahman, said a labor broker persuaded him to leave his hometown for a janitorial job in Russia. Within weeks of arriving in Moscow, he was made to sign documents in Russian that later proved to be a military contract, then sent to a training camp for instruction in drone tactics, casualty evacuation and basic use of heavy weapons. When he protested, a commander told him via a translation app, “Your agent sent you here. We bought you,” he recalled.
The men described being compelled into highly dangerous tasks—moving ahead of Russian units, hauling supplies, evacuating wounded soldiers and recovering bodies—under threats of beatings and up to 10 years in prison if they refused. Rahman said he endured seven months before managing to flee and return home.
AP reviewed travel records, purported Russian military contracts, medical and police reports, and photos of injuries that the outlet said corroborate the men’s accounts of service in Ukraine. Families of three other missing Bangladeshis told AP their relatives reported similar coercion before contact was lost. The total number affected is unclear, but the escapees said they encountered “hundreds” of Bangladeshis embedded with Russian forces.
Neither Russia’s Defense or Foreign Ministry nor Bangladesh’s government responded to AP’s questions, the report said. Officials and rights advocates told AP that recruiters have used comparable tactics on citizens of India, Nepal and several African nations, raising fresh concerns about the exploitation of migrant laborers in active conflict zones.