All language subtitles for Global.Eye.S2025E10.1080p.iP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-HiNGS_track3_[eng]

This programme contains scenes which
some viewers may find upsetting.

Welcome to Global Eye from the BBC
World Service. Each week,

we bring you the best of the World
Service's investigative journalism,

as well as unmissable reporting
from BBC teams around the world.

I'm Stephanie Hegarty,

the BBC's global population
correspondent,

and I'm here in the
Peruvian Amazon to report on

one of the largest groups
of people still living

in voluntary isolation
from the rest of the world.

The Mashco-Piro have remained
uncontacted for over a century.

It's thought that their ancestors
fled here into the forest to escape

the rubber barons of the 1890s,

who massacred and enslaved hundreds
of thousands of indigenous people.

Now they're under threat again.

I've been speaking to the indigenous
villagers who live alongside them

to understand more
about the challenges

this unique group of people face.

Also in this week's programme,
BBC Eye hears from women who say

they were lured to
the United Arab Emirates...

So you have to tell me which girls
you want.

We've got, like, 25 girls.

..often under false promises
of work,

and exposes an illegal
prostitution ring,

systematically exploiting
young Ugandan women.

Away from the rainforest, on
the streets of Peru's capital, Lima,

the government has been rocked
by massive protests.

The demonstrators were angry

about official corruption
and out-of-control crime.

Former President Boluarte
has been removed from office,

but protesters are now mounting
against her successor,

Peru's seventh president
in nine years.

Among the pressing challenges
President Jose Jeri faces

is a push for the formal recognition
of all indigenous territories,

putting them off-limits to industry.

There are at least 25 uncontacted
groups living in Peru.

Last month,
after 20 years of debate,

the Peruvian government
rejected the establishment

of a new reserve for uncontacted
people in the north of the country,

prompting accusations they were
violating human rights

and allowing loggers and miners

to threaten these communities'
very existence.

Just over there on the banks of

the Tahuamanu River
in the Peruvian Amazon,

the Mashco-Piro people
live in isolation,

avoiding regular contact
with the rest of the world.

This is dense, remote jungle.

It's hard to navigate, and it's hot
and humid all year round.

But here, the Mashco-Piro people
have survived and thrived

for well over a century.

It's not clear, but it's thought
there's now more than

750 Mashco-Piro people living
in an area the size of Ireland.

The people in this village
have been living peacefully

alongside their Mashco-Piro
neighbours for decades,

but recently, tensions
have been mounting.

The NGO Survival International says
that half of all uncontacted people

around the world could be wiped out
in the next ten years

if their governments don't do more
to protect them.

HE WHISTLES

Tomas is warning his
neighbours he's here.

HE WHISTLES

He's trying to avoid
a tense encounter,

like what happened
just a week before.

Tomas has been living alongside
this isolated tribe for decades.

But for most of that time,
he rarely saw them.

His neighbours are the Mashco-Piro,

a tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers
who've cut themselves off

from the rest of society
for over a century.

They hunt with longbows and arrows
and gather plants and fruit to eat.

They rely on the forest
for everything.

But recently, logging
companies have been operating here.

This part of the forest
is not protected.

Tomas' home, Nueva Oceania,
is a tiny fishing village

of eight families high on
the banks of the Tahuamanu River.

As he took us back there
from his garden plot just upstream,

a young woman called Leticia
was rushing back from the forest.

She was picking fruit

when she encountered the Mashco-Piro
for the first time.

HIGH-PITCHED WAIL

Peru has a policy of no contact with
isolated people, to protect groups

like the Mashco-Piro
from disease and exploitation.

It means it's illegal
to initiate contact with them.

But the people of Nueva Oceania
feel they've been left alone

to protect themselves
and their isolated neighbours.

It's a very different story in other
parts of Mashco-Piro territory,

where the government have
been running control posts

for many years.

When the Mashco-Piro come out
of the forest,

agents are here
to manage any interaction.

The agents have been able to learn
the Mashco-Piro's language,

because it's similar to their own.

This control post
was set up in 2015,

after interaction between
Mashco-Piro and local villages

led to several killings.

As head of the control post,

Antonio's job is to stop that
from happening again.

It's just over the other side
of this river,

on that beach right there, where
several Mashco-Piro families

regularly appear.
They shout over the river at

the agents here,
asking for banana or plantain.

And they came on Monday,
actually. And the agents here said

they didn't have any, but they told
them to come back in three days.

You have all their names.
Sus nombres.

The agents give the
Mashco-Piro some crops,

to stop them raiding
nearby villages.

I asked Antonio why the policy
of no contact is so important.

Antonio has worked here for
ten years, and in that time

he's learnt a little about
how the Mashco-Piro live.

In the four years he's been here,

Pancho has come to know
some people well.

But any time the agents
ask about life in the forest,

the Mashco-Piro shut
the conversation down.

The Mashco-Piro here
are well protected, for now,

though the government plans to
build a road that would connect

this area to a place
where illegal mining is widespread.

We approached the Peruvian
government for a response

to the claim that this road
and logging operations could put

the Mashco-Piro at risk,
but we didn't receive a reply.

In Nueva Oceania, the people of
the village are doing what they can

to protect their
isolated neighbours.

Now here's some of the other
thought-provoking content

available this week
from the BBC World Service.

The Focus On Africa podcast brings

an African perspective on
global stories every weekday.

A recent episode focused on a new
turn in the Sudanese Civil War,

where the Rapid Support Forces,
the RSF, claimed to take control

of Al Fashir,
the last remaining foothold

of the Sudanese Armed Forces
in the Darfur region.

And each week, The Global
Story analyses America's

complex relationship with
the rest of the world.

This week,
as President Trump toured Asia,

they ask, what would Trump do
if China attacked Taiwan?

Now we're taking you to Dubai.

BBC Eye spent two years
investigating stories

of women who say they were lured to

the Middle East
under false promises of work.

Using undercover footage,
testimonies from these women

and open source intelligence
journalism,

they were able to expose an illegal
prostitution ring

run by a man known as
"the Untouchable".

Here's Runako Celina.

Across social media,

Ugandans like Monic Karungi -
or Mona Kizz -

are being sold a dream...

..the glitz and glamour of Dubai
and a better life.

But for some, the reality
is nothing short of a nightmare.

I'm Runako Celina.

I'm an investigative journalist
for the BBC.

I've travelled from London

to this farm in Uganda to meet
Ronah, Monic's niece.

This is you.

So that means she is... Mm-hm.

She's the baby? Really, that's her?

She's gorgeous.

Like so many other Ugandans,

Monic moved to Dubai, hoping
for a job and a better life.

Monic died four months
after leaving her family in Uganda.

On the 1st of May, 2022,

she fell to her death
from a Dubai high rise.

And she isn't the only one.

Another woman, called Kayla,
also fell to her death

in Dubai in 2021.

Both Kayla and Monic
were from Uganda,

and both knew the same people
in Dubai.

What's really going on here?

As Uganda wrestles with rising
youth unemployment,

sending Ugandans to work abroad -

mainly in the Gulf states -

has become a huge industry
that contributes

$1.2 billion of tax revenue
to Uganda annually.

Most Ugandans head to Dubai
through safe channels,

but according to anti-trafficking
activist Marriam Mwiza

many are less fortunate.

Mwiza runs an NGO that helps
Ugandans being exploited abroad.

She has rescued
more than 700 people.

How big is the problem?

With the exploitation
of women so prevalent,

could this be what
happened to Monic?

And what about Kayla -

who also fell to her death
in Dubai - the year before Monic?

Both Monic and Kayla posted
on social media

from the same area in Dubai,

Al Barsha.

Through comments, bits of
Kayla's story become clear.

Her name is Kayla Birungi,

and she was 21 years old.

Kayla and Monic have tons
of mutual friends.

I reach out to a handful of them,

hoping someone will reply to me.

While I wait to hear back,

I look into a couple
of phone numbers.

The first is a number that came
from Monic's family.

They say that this is the man
she was working for

while she was in Dubai.

The second number came
from Kayla's family,

for a man they were told
was her landlord in Dubai.

I start with the number
Monic's family gave me.

It doesn't take long
to see a result.

Variations of the same name twice -

Abbey.

One record has the word Tecom
attached to it.

It's an area in Dubai that
most people know as Al Barsha.

This is where we know Kayla
and Monic lived in Dubai.

I can't do much with just one name,
Abbey,

so I try the number I got
from Kayla's family.

It's a UK number.

It's also been saved as Abby -

same name as the first number -

and it's connected
to a Facebook page.

It shows another name,
Charles Mwesigwa.

But still, there's no photo of him -

just a tiny square image

of an Arabic English keyboard.

Across Facebook, Instagram
and TikTok,

I find almost 250 accounts
for men called Charles Mwesigwa.

But I see this profile picture
on four of them,

and one of them follows
Monic's account on Instagram.

Charles Mwesigwa,

also known as Abbey,

the man Kayla's family were told
was her landlord,

and Abby,

the man Monic's family were told
was her boss in Dubai -

it's the same man.

I've had a response from one of
Kayla and Monic's

mutual friends in Dubai.

Wow.

She says...

She's back in Uganda,

having managed to get out of Dubai
just under a year ago.

It's dangerous for her to speak,

so we've anonymized her using AI.

Who's the person who was
bringing girls to Dubai?

50 girls? Living there?

Wow.

Do you have any pictures
of this man, Abbey?

This is him?

I now have the face and the name
of the man

who we believe took Monic to Dubai.

Charles Mwesigwa, or Abbey.

I've been mapping out the men
who work for him.

A source confirms that this guy,
Troy, has left Abbey.

He's agreed to meet me.

How is Abbey able to get girls
from Uganda?

Tracking down Abbey has
proven challenging.

But I've enlisted an undercover team
and they've had a breakthrough.

OK...

To get close to Abbey,

our undercover operative is
posing as an events organiser

for high net worth individuals

looking for women for their parties.

He's managed to secure a meeting
with Abbey.

LAUGHTER

His driving licence confirmed that
he is indeed Charles Mwesigwa,

the man we believe Monic
was working for in Dubai.

It's become part of me.
Uh-huh.

LAUGHTER

OPERATIVE SIGHS

A relative of Monic's was in
the UAE when she died.

He's asked us to protect
his identity

for fear of retribution.

After Monic fell to her death,

he went to confront the man
he believed was her boss.

We have a photo of...

What happened to Mona?

It's time to try to talk to Abbey.

We call him on the number he gave
to our undercover operative

who was posing as a client.

Hi, Mr Mwesigwa,

Runako Celina for the BBC.

We have evidence that you
are operating

a prostitution ring in Dubai.

What do you have to say to this?

Is it 25 young women
that you have working...?

He's hung up already.

So now he's sending...

"Bro, please stop tarnishing
my name.

"If I went where girls do
their business

"and they follow me to my parties
and do their stuff,

"is it anyone's problem?

"When they go to hotels
and rent rooms,

"did you find me seated
by their sides?

"If they send me messages that they
have gotten a visa

"and I connect them with landlords,
is it my fault?

"I'm a party animal in Dubai

"and party with very wealthy people.

"That's why girls always
come onto our tables

"and look for me."

As Abbey is engaging,

I put more questions to him
about Monic and Kayla.

"Both were very heavy users
of substances

"and were like mad people,

"especially Mon."

Which I guess is Monic.

He completely disassociates himself
from everything

that's happened in Dubai,

from this entire industry,
from any wrongdoing.

And you can watch a longer version
of Runako's report

on BBC Two on Wednesday
at 11:30pm.

Thanks for joining me here in Peru.

Global Eye will be back again
next week.