Russia and Zimbabwe have begun talks about the African country sending people to Russia to work in construction.
Russia faces severe labour shortages as casualties soar in its 33-month invasion of Ukraine.
Faced with a declining population and an economy running hot to supply the war effort, the private sector is competing with the army for increasingly scarce workers.
Russian housing and construction deputy minister Nikita Stasishin met Zimbabwe’s housing minister Zhemu Soda at the World Urban Forum in Cairo earlier this month to discuss the supply of construction workers, reports Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald.
They agreed on a future visit by a Russian delegation to discuss proposals.
‘Obstacle to growth’
Russian president Vladimir Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on 7 November that Russia’s labour shortage was “one of the main obstacles to our economic growth”.
“We have half a million people or even 600,000 who can get a job in construction right now, and the industry will not notice,” he said.
“We need 250,000 people in manufacturing industry right now, and it would not cover all its needs either,” he added.
Combing the world
Russia has been combing the world in search of workers, but there are concerns they’ll be drawn into the war effort directly or indirectly.
The number of advertisements posted in African countries for Russian job vacancies in fields such as IT and construction rose exponentially this year, Kyiv Independent reports, citing Russian state media.
In Kenya alone, the number of ads rose from from 161 in the first half of 2023 to almost 6,500 in the first half of this year.
Travel restrictions
A number of countries have taken action to prevent people accepting offers of work in Russia after they ended up on the front line in Ukraine
In March, Indias’s Central Bureau of Investigation said it had identified 35 cases of Indian men being lured to fight for Russia in Ukraine, with at least two having been confirmed as killed in combat.
At the start of this year, Nepal banned citizens from going to Russia or Ukraine for work after 10 young men were killed and dozens more reported missing while fighting, predominately in the Russian army, The Guardian reported.
That followed the arrest of 12 people in Nepal on charges of trafficking up to 200 men to Russia, charging them $9,000 for tourist visas and then coercing them to enlist.
African women making drones
Australian state broadcaster ABC reported last month that around 200 women aged 18-22 from African countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, as well as from Sri Lanka, were recruited with promises of a work-study program in fields like hospitality and catering, only to be made to work at a drone factory in Tatarstan.
In July, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma – its lower house of parliament – issued a statement calling for a new law requiring migrants to register for military service if they apply for Russian citizenship, Reuters reported.
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