Putin targets migrant smuggling networks to boost his ranks

Emmanuel had already tried to improve his life once before by following the well-trodden migrant route from Africa to Europe, only to get sent back from Italy.

Returning to his native Cameroon in West Africa, he again found himself jobless, only this time his family was now in debt for his failed European trip.

Dreams of escaping abroad are commonplace in a country where half the population is under 20 and unemployment in major cities is 35 per cent.

Polling has found 51 per cent of Cameroonians have considered emigrating and this desperation has created a lucrative industry of travel agencies, visa wranglers, middlemen and fixers touting their business on social media.

Scammers and con artists abound, and exploitation is rife.

The picture is similar in many countries in Africa and beyond wherever migration is big business.

When Emmanuel, who declined to give his real name, saw a chance to get back to Europe, this time with a job in Russia, he leapt at it.

The job ads said he would be working with the military, but well away from the front lines, as a guard or a cook.

“I didn’t hesitate, I thought that given the salary and other benefits offered, I could finally help my family escape this poverty,” he recently told researchers at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

Yet when he arrived, like thousands before him, he found he had been lied to and did not have a cushy job in the rear, but was sent to the front to fight, where a new recruit’s life expectancy can average only around 72 hours.

Thousands of young men have now followed the same path, from Africa, Asia or Latin America as Putin’s commanders have tapped into the global pool of desperate migrant labour to replenish Russia’s ranks.