The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals consented to work covertly to uncover a organization behind unlawful main street enterprises because the criminals are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both lived lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout the United Kingdom, and aimed to discover more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Equipped with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, attempting to buy and operate a mini-mart from which to trade contraband cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to uncover how straightforward it is for a person in these situations to establish and operate a commercial operation on the commercial area in full view. The individuals participating, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the operations in their identities, enabling to mislead the authorities.

Ali and Saman also managed to secretly document one of those at the heart of the organization, who asserted that he could erase official sanctions of up to £60k faced those employing unauthorized employees.

"I aimed to participate in uncovering these unlawful operations [...] to declare that they don't represent us," states Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. The reporter came to the United Kingdom illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his safety was at threat.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized migration are elevated in the UK and explain they have both been anxious that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But Ali explains that the illegal labor "damages the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he feels driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, the journalist explains he was anxious the publication could be exploited by the far-right.

He says this especially struck him when he realized that far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Signs and flags could be seen at the gathering, showing "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been tracking social media response to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated intense frustration for certain individuals. One social media comment they found stated: "In what way can we locate and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

One more called for their relatives in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also seen accusations that they were spies for the British authorities, and traitors to other Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter says. "Our goal is to reveal those who have compromised its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish heritage and extremely troubled about the actions of such persons."

Most of those applying for asylum say they are escaping politically motivated persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was considered.

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

"Realistically speaking, this isn't enough to maintain a respectable lifestyle," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from employment, he believes numerous are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "compelled to labor in the unofficial economy for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A representative for the Home Office said: "We do not apologize for refusing to grant asylum seekers the authorization to work - granting this would create an reason for people to come to the UK illegally."

Refugee cases can require multiple years to be decided with approximately a 33% taking more than a year, according to official data from the spring this year.

The reporter explains being employed without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been quite easy to achieve, but he informed the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he interviewed laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals expended all their funds to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

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