A man running a sex ring out of Dubai’s most glamorous neighbourhoods, and exploiting vulnerable women, has been identified by a BBC investigation.
Charles Mwesigwa, who claims he is a former London bus driver, told our undercover reporter he could provide women for a sex party starting at $1,000 (£740), adding that many could do “pretty much everything” clients wanted.
Rumours of wild sex parties in the UAE emirate have circulated for years. The hashtag #Dubaiportapotty, viewed more than 450 million times on TikTok, links to parodies and speculative exposés of women accused of being money-hungry influencers secretly funding their lifestyles by fulfilling extreme sexual requests.
Our BBC World Service investigation was told the reality is far darker.
Young Ugandan women told us they had not expected to be forced into sex work for Mr Mwesigwa. In some cases, they believed they were travelling to the UAE for jobs in supermarkets or hotels.
At least one of Mr Mwesigwa’s clients regularly asked to defecate on the women, according to “Mia” (not her real name), who says she was trapped in his network.
Mr Mwesigwa denies the allegations. He says he simply helps women find accommodation through landlords, and that they follow him to parties because of his wealthy Dubai contacts.
We also discovered that two women linked to Mr Mwesigwa had died after falling from high-rise apartments. Though their deaths were ruled suicides, their friends and families believe the police should have investigated further.
Mr Mwesigwa said Dubai police had already investigated the cases and directed us to contact them. They did not respond to our request.
One of the women who died, Monic Karungi, had travelled to Dubai from western Uganda.
She ended up sharing a flat with dozens of other women working for Mr Mwesigwa, according to another woman, “Keira,” who says she lived with Monic in 2022.
“[His] place was like a market… There were like 50 girls. She was not happy because what she expected is not what she got,” Keira told us.
Monic thought the job in Dubai would be in a supermarket, according to her sister, Rita.
“He [Mr Mwesigwa] was violent when I told him I wanted to go back home,” says Mia, who also knew Monic in Dubai. She says that when she first arrived, he told her she already owed him £2,000 ($2,711), and that within two weeks, that debt had doubled.
“Money for air tickets, for your visa, for where you’re sleeping, food,” says Mia.
“That means you have to work hard, hard, hard, pleading for men to come and sleep [with] you.”
Monic owed Mr Mwesigwa more than $27,000 (£19,918) after several weeks, according to a relative we are calling “Michael,” who says she confided in him. He adds that he received tearful voice notes from her.
Mia told us the clients were mostly white Europeans, including men with extreme fetishes.
“There’s this one client, he poops on girls. He poops and tells them to eat the shit,” she explained quietly.
Another woman, “Lexi,” who says she was deceived by a different network, echoed Mia’s story, saying “porta potty” requests were frequent.
“There was a client who said: ‘We pay you 15,000 Arab Emirates Dirham ($4,084, £3,013) to gang-rape you, pee in your face, beat you, and add 5,000 ($1,361, £1,004)’ for being recorded eating faeces.”
Her experiences led her to believe there was a racial element to this extreme fetish.
“Every time I said that I wouldn’t want to do that, it seemed to get them more interested. They want somebody who is going to cry and scream and run. And that somebody [in their eyes] should be a black person.”
Lexi says she tried to get help from the police, but claims they told her: “You Africans cause problems for each other. We don’t want to get involved.” Then they would hang up.
We put this allegation to the Dubai police. They did not respond.
Lexi eventually escaped back to Uganda and now helps to rescue and support women in similar situations.
Finding Charles Mwesigwa was not easy. We found only one picture of him online, taken from behind. He also uses multiple names on social media.
But through open-source intelligence, undercover work, and information from a former member of his network, we traced him to a middle-class neighbourhood in Dubai – Jumeirah Village Circle.
To corroborate what sources had told us about his business – supplying women for degrading sex acts – we sent in an undercover reporter posing as an event organiser sourcing women for high-end parties.
Mr Mwesigwa appeared calm and confident while describing his business.
“We’ve got like 25 girls,” he said. “Many are open-minded… they can do pretty much everything.”
He explained the cost – from $1,000 (£738) per girl per night, but more for “crazy stuff.” He invited our reporter for a “sample night.”
When asked about “Dubai porta potty,” he replied: “I’ve told you, they are open-minded. When I say open-minded… I will send you the craziest I have.”
During the conversation, Mr Mwesigwa said he used to be a London bus driver. We have seen evidence of him listing that occupation on an official document in East London in 2006.
He went on to tell our reporter that he loved this business.
“I could win the lottery, a million pounds, but I would still do it… it’s become part of me.”
Troy, a man who says he once acted as operations manager for Mr Mwesigwa’s network, gave us more insight into how it allegedly runs.
He says Mr Mwesigwa bribes security at various nightclubs so his women can enter and find clients.
“I’ve heard about types of sex that I’ve never seen in my life. It doesn’t matter what you go through as long as his rich men are happy… [the women] have no escape route… They see musicians, they see footballers, they see presidents.”
Troy claims Mr Mwesigwa protects himself by using others’ names to rent apartments and cars, ensuring his name never appears on paperwork.
On 27 April 2022, Monic posted a selfie from Al Barsha – a residential neighbourhood popular with expats in Dubai. Four days later, she was dead. She had been in the emirate for just four months.
According to Mia, Monic and Mr Mwesigwa had been arguing frequently in the weeks before her death. Mia says Monic had refused to comply with his demands and had found a way out of his network.
“She had got some kind of job. She was very excited. She thought she was gonna get free, she was going to get her life back because now that was a real job, no sleeping with men,” Mia says.
Monic moved into another apartment about 10 minutes’ walk away. It was from this balcony that she fell on 1 May 2022.
Her relative Michael, who was in the UAE at the time, says he tried to get answers. Police told him they stopped their investigation after finding drugs and alcohol in the flat and only her fingerprints on the balcony.
He obtained a death certificate, but it did not state how she died. The family could not obtain a toxicology report.
A Ghanaian man in the building later introduced Michael to a man he said was Monic’s boss.
Michael describes seeing women having sex with clients in the living room, shisha smoke filling the air, and what looked like cocaine on the table.
He says he found Charles Mwesigwa in bed with two women. When he tried to drag him to the police, Mr Mwesigwa allegedly told him: “I have spent 25 years in Dubai. Dubai is mine… There is no way you are going to report me… Embassy is me, I’m the embassy.
“[Monic’s] not the first to die. And she won’t be the last,” he added, according to Michael.
Mia and Keira both say they witnessed this conversation and confirmed its wording. Mr Mwesigwa denies having said it.
Monic’s death shares haunting similarities with that of Kayla Birungi, another Ugandan woman who died in 2021 after falling from a Dubai high-rise. Evidence suggests her apartment was also managed by Charles Mwesigwa.
Her landlord’s number, shared by Kayla’s family, turned out to be one of Mr Mwesigwa’s. Troy and four other women also confirmed he managed the flat.
Kayla’s relatives were told her death was linked to alcohol and drugs. But a toxicology report seen by the BBC shows no such substances were in her system.
While Kayla’s family repatriated her body for burial, Monic’s remains were never returned.
Our investigation suggests she was buried in Dubai’s Al Qusais Cemetery, in a section known as “The Unknown,” where unclaimed migrant bodies lie in unmarked graves.
Monic and Kayla were part of a wider, unofficial pipeline connecting Uganda to the Gulf.
With rising youth unemployment, overseas work – mainly in the Gulf states – has become a huge industry for Uganda, contributing $1.2bn (£885m) annually in tax revenue.
But these opportunities come with risks.
Mariam Mwiza, a Ugandan activist against exploitation, says she has helped rescue more than 700 people from the Gulf.
“We get cases of people who have been promised to work, let’s say, in a supermarket. Then [that person] ends up sold as a prostitute,” she told us.
For Monic’s family, grief is now mixed with fear – fear that others could face the same fate if nothing is done.
“We are all looking at Monica’s death,” her relative Michael said. “But who is there for the girls still alive? They’re still there. Still suffering.”
The BBC asked Charles “Abbey” Mwesigwa to respond to all allegations. He denied running a prostitution ring.
He said: “These are all false allegations.
“I told you I am just a party person who invites big spenders on my tables, hence making many girls flock [to] my table. That makes me know many girls and that’s it.”
He also said: “[Monic] died with her passport, meaning no-one was demanding her money for taking her. Prior to her death, I hadn’t seen her for four to five weeks.
“I knew [Monic and Kayla] and [they] were renting with different landlords. If no-one in both flats was arrested, or any of the landlords, then there was a reason. Both incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and maybe they can help you.”
The BBC contacted Al Barsha Police Station to request case files for Monic Karungi and Kayla Birungi. It did not respond, nor to allegations that their deaths were not properly investigated.
The BBC was unable to access toxicology reports for Monic Karungi, or to speak with the landlord of the apartment where she lived before her death.
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