Why Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish-background men decided to work covertly to reveal a organization behind unlawful High Street establishments because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they say.

The two, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin investigators who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for years.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was managing convenience stores, barbershops and car washes throughout the United Kingdom, and aimed to discover more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with covert cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no right to work, looking to purchase and run a mini-mart from which to trade contraband cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to uncover how easy it is for someone in these situations to set up and manage a enterprise on the commercial area in plain sight. The individuals participating, we learned, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their names, helping to mislead the officials.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to covertly document one of those at the heart of the operation, who stated that he could remove official fines of up to £60k imposed on those hiring illegal laborers.

"I wanted to play a role in revealing these unlawful operations [...] to say that they don't speak for us," states Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter came to the UK illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his life was at danger.

The investigators admit that tensions over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the probe could worsen tensions.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal labor "negatively affects the entire Kurdish population" and he feels driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, Ali mentions he was concerned the publication could be seized upon by the far-right.

He says this especially affected him when he realized that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Placards and flags could be spotted at the rally, reading "we want our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated strong anger for certain individuals. One Facebook post they observed stated: "In what way can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

One more urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also encountered allegations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter states. "Our goal is to expose those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and profoundly concerned about the activities of such persons."

The majority of those applying for refugee status claim they are escaping political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He states he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now get about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which includes meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this is not adequate to maintain a respectable life," states the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely prevented from working, he believes many are susceptible to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department stated: "The government do not apologize for not granting refugee applicants the permission to work - doing so would generate an incentive for individuals to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Refugee cases can require multiple years to be decided with nearly a 33% requiring more than a year, according to official data from the late March this current year.

Saman explains being employed illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to accomplish, but he informed us he would never have done that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he met laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his investigation seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals used all of their funds to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've forfeited all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] say you're forbidden to work - but simultaneously [you]