Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish-background individuals decided to work covertly to uncover a organization behind unlawful commercial establishments because the criminals are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they explain.

The pair, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish investigators who have both resided legally in the United Kingdom for many years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was managing convenience stores, hair salons and car washes the length of Britain, and wanted to discover more about how it functioned and who was involved.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, looking to buy and operate a convenience store from which to sell contraband cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how straightforward it is for someone in these circumstances to start and operate a business on the main street in public view. Those involved, we learned, pay Kurds who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, enabling to fool the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to discreetly film one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could remove government penalties of up to £60k encountered those hiring illegal laborers.

"I aimed to participate in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not represent our community," says Saman, a ex- refugee applicant himself. The reporter entered the UK illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his well-being was at risk.

The investigators admit that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are high in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify conflicts.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized labor "harms the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he believes obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Additionally, Ali mentions he was worried the reporting could be used by the extreme right.

He explains this notably struck him when he noticed that extreme right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Signs and flags could be spotted at the protest, showing "we want our country back".

Both journalists have both been observing online response to the exposé from within the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated significant anger for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they spotted said: "How can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

One more called for their families in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also encountered allegations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly concerned about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those seeking refugee status say they are escaping political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a charity that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the case for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the UK, faced difficulties for many years. He explains he had to survive on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now get about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which offers meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't enough to maintain a acceptable existence," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely prohibited from working, he thinks a significant number are open to being taken advantage of and are essentially "compelled to work in the black economy for as little as £3 per hour".

A official for the government department commented: "We are unapologetic for denying refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would create an incentive for people to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be resolved with nearly a one-third taking more than a year, according to government data from the spring this year.

The reporter says working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been very straightforward to do, but he explained to us he would never have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he met employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals used their entire money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've sacrificed everything."

The other reporter agrees that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] say you're prohibited to be employed - but also [you]