Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

Hello and welcome to Global Eye from the BBC World Service.

Each week we bring you the best of our journalism,

from investigations with global impact

to stories of hope and resilience.

I'm Kurumi Mori and I'm in Japan's capital, Tokyo.

Coming up on the programme,

we'll bring you the story of one woman's search

for justice as she tries to find the men

who abused her in a secret prison in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

I'll be exploring the tensions

rising here as the country confronts the challenge

of an ageing population.

Is what some call a stealth immigration policy

creating a new and divided Japan?

And we'll meet the woman who bucked the trend of youth unemployment

in Turkey by getting behind the wheel of a truck.

But first this week, we're taking you to Ukraine.

Since Russia first occupied parts of the country in 2014,

before launching its full-scale invasion in 2022,

thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been illegally detained

in Russian-run prisons and detention centres,

some held for years. Many have endured torture

and conflict-related sexual violence,

including Liudmyla Huseinova, who was wrongly imprisoned

in the notorious Izolyatsia facility in Donetsk.

BBC Eye spent months identifying the men who likely jailed

and abused her and found them living freely.

This film follows Liudmyla's search for justice

and exposes the massive scale of the Russian-run detention network.

Since 2014, when Russia occupied parts of Ukraine,

escalating with the full-scale invasion in 2022,

thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been held illegally,

some for years in Russian-run detention centres.

Many were subjected to torture and conflict-related

sexual violence, like Liudmyla.

Since she was freed,

Liudmyla has been renting a flat in Kyiv with her husband.

The Russians occupied her home town of Novoazovsk in 2014.

Later, when she was detained, Liudmyla lost almost everything.

The men who arrested Liudmyla in October 2019 were from the MGB,

the pro-Russian Ministry of State security

of the occupied parts of the Donetsk region.

Liudmyla thinks a flag she cherished,

given to her by Ukrainian soldiers for her support,

was the catalyst for her arrest.

A factory turned art gallery

Izolyatsia was taken over by Russian-backed forces in 2014.

EXPLOSION

Since then, only a few leaked images provide glimpses

of what Izolyatsia became - a huge detention facility where an unknown

number of Ukrainians are still held at any one time.

Two weeks later, she was taken from her cell to the second floor.

Liudmyla's arresting officer Temerbek was there again,

accompanied by a man with a Russian accent called Koval.

Liudmyla says she was sexually assaulted by Koval.

Liudmyla struggles to eat normally after her ordeal in detention.

One reason is an incident with a senior guard called Yermak.

Liudmyla was forced to eat uncooked food mixed with soil and garbage.

As part of an exchange of Russian prisoners of war

for Ukrainian female prisoners, Liudmyla was freed in October 2022.

To find Liudmyla's alleged abusers,

BBC Eye worked with Bohdan Kosokhatko, an investigator who uses

open sources known as OSINT.

This assignment builds on work he's done

with investigative organisation Truth Hounds.

We asked him to research the evidence

against the men Liudmyla accuses.

Using leaked data in social media,

Bohdan has found the man Liudmyla thinks arrested her

and was present when she was sexually assaulted.

He was a traffic policeman before the occupation.

He studied Ukrainian language at university

and had sworn allegiance to the Ukrainian state as a policeman.

But the Ukrainian authorities accused him

of abandoning this oath to join the MGB -

Ministry of State security for the pro-Russian administration.

He's married with a daughter and grandchild.

Bohdan has not managed to identify Koval,

the man with the Russian accent who sexually assaulted Liudmyla.

He thinks he was operating under a false identity...

...common practice for FSB in Ukrainian-occupied territory,

but this can't be confirmed.

Bohdan moves on to Yermak, the senior guard

who Liudmyla says made her eat garbage.

Liudmyla heard his voice many times but never saw his face.

Yermak has been exposed by journalists already

as a guard in Izolyatsia. It's not clear

whether he's working there today, but still lives in the area.

The photos of him and his family here on holiday

in occupied Crimea show him apparently enjoying life.

The BBC contacted them with these allegations,

but they did not reply.

BBC Eye was able to verify that there

are over 93 detention centres in occupied Ukraine,

used for civilians and prisoners of war,

and around 102 in Russian territories.

According to the Ukrainians' Parliamentary

Commissioner for Human Rights,

more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians

are currently detained or have disappeared.

Liudmyla has a chance of her case going

to trial at the European Court of Human Rights.

But what Ukrainians really want is a Ukrainian Nuremberg.

You can watch the full length version of Ukraine Survivors:

Finding My Abusers on BBC iPlayer

or the BBC World Service YouTube channel.

A soaring minaret, a magnificent dome,

intricate Islamic architecture.

It's the kind of view more commonly associated

with Istanbul than Japan's capital.

But Tokyo Camii, Japan's largest mosque,

is a striking landmark and, to many, an unexpected one.

Today, it's also a symbol

of a Muslim community that's becoming

increasingly visible across the country.

Japan's Muslim population has more than tripled since 2010,

but even as a growing demographic,

Muslims only make up around 0.3% of the country's population.

And yet, some people here in Japan worry

that unfamiliar Islamic customs could disrupt

the established social fabric.

This laid back seaside city of Fujisawa seems like

an unlikely place for heated protest.

But earlier this year,

thousands took to the streets to object to

the proposed construction of the city's first mosque.

You can see next to me is the intended site.

Some argue that a mosque much larger than

the nearby Japanese Shinto shrine is disrespectful.

Anti-immigrant rallies like this reflect

a broader anxiety among some Japanese that a rising

immigrant population is changing the country's social make-up.

At the same time, misinformation and hate speech

are also spreading on Japanese social media,

and local reports say mosques have been receiving

abusive phone calls and emails,

some of which have prompted residents

to come out for no-hate demonstrations.

Then there are some who are still undecided

over the construction of the mosque.

The debate comes as Japan grapples. with a difficult reality.

With one of the world's highest life expectancies

but among the lowest fertility rates,

Japan's working-age population has been shrinking for decades.

The immigration policy has been restrictive,

but for years the country has brought in foreign workers framed

as temporary labour to fill the gap,

something critics describe as a stealth immigration system.

Here in Oizumi, in the northern Kanto region,

around one in five residents is a foreign national,

offering a glimpse into Japan's growing diversity.

Since the early 1990s, Oizumi has been known as Little Brazil.

It's attracted thousands of foreign workers and their families,

becoming one of the most established,

multicultural and integrated communities in the country.

The neighbourhood is lined

with Brazilian supermarkets like this one.

The shelves are stocked with a wide range of foods,

from Brazilian drinks and cheese bread

to Peruvian snacks and Vietnamese noodles.

Home to major manufacturing plants operated

by companies including Subaru and Panasonic,

Oizumi has long relied on foreign workers

to help meet the demand for labour,

and you can see evidence of that everywhere.

The local railway station has signs displayed in six languages.

As Japan looks beyond its borders to fill gaps in the workforce,

the demographic changes seen in Oizumi

are becoming increasingly visible elsewhere.

I can remember Tokyo 15, 20 years ago.

The vast majority of ramen workers and chefs were Japanese,

but now it's not uncommon to see a non-Japanese behind the counter.

27-year-old Suraj, from Nepal,

has been working at this ramen restaurant

in the heart of the city for the past year.

He says he enjoys living and working

in Japan so much he wants to stay here permanently.

So I think for me, Japan is the best country to make a future.

How long do you think you'll be in Japan?

I want to work for my entire life.

It's so beautiful and so easy for me.

From the streets of Fujisawa to

the factories of Oizumi and the bustling streets of Tokyo,

a picture emerges of a country in transition.

As Japan becomes increasingly reliant on foreign workers,

a broader question remains -

can the country embrace greater diversity

while preserving its strict immigration system,

social cohesion and sense of identity

that has so long defined what it means to be Japanese?

While here in Japan, low birth rates and an ageing population

are creating labour shortages,

5,000 miles away in Turkey,

the challenge is almost the reverse.

A large and growing working-age population

is intensifying competition for jobs,

particularly among younger people.

Turkey has one of the highest

youth unemployment rates in the G20, and for young women,

the rate is even higher.

Over a fifth of young women in Turkey are out of work.

After graduating, Basak Guvercin and couldn't find a job,

so decided to follow in her father's footsteps

and get behind the wheel of a truck.

BBC Turkish hitched a ride with her to find out how she handles working

in an industry where women make up just 1% of the drivers.

Thanks for joining me in Japan.

We want your feedback on Global Eye.

So let us know what you think on social media

using the hashtag #bbcglobaleye.

Next week we'll be reporting from Iran.

Goodbye.