Why Our Team Went Undercover to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to work covertly to reveal a network behind illegal commercial businesses because the criminals are causing harm the reputation of Kurds in the Britain, they state.

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

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish crime network was running mini-marts, hair salons and car washes across the UK, and wanted to discover more about how it functioned and who was taking part.

Prepared with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to be employed, attempting to acquire and manage a convenience store from which to sell illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to reveal how straightforward it is for an individual in these conditions to set up and run a enterprise on the High Street in plain sight. Those involved, we learned, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the operations in their names, helping to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to secretly document one of those at the heart of the organization, who claimed that he could erase official penalties of up to £60,000 encountered those employing unauthorized laborers.

"Personally sought to play a role in exposing these unlawful operations [...] to say that they do not characterize our community," states Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the United Kingdom illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his well-being was at threat.

The reporters acknowledge that disagreements over unauthorized migration are significant in the UK and explain they have both been concerned that the inquiry could inflame conflicts.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the entire Kurdish population" and he considers driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, the journalist mentions he was worried the reporting could be seized upon by the far-right.

He says this especially struck him when he discovered that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Placards and flags could be observed at the rally, reading "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been tracking social media reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and report it has sparked intense anger for some. One social media comment they observed read: "In what way can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

A different called for their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also seen accusations that they were informants for the UK government, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish population," Saman says. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its standing. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and deeply worried about the behavior of such individuals."

Most of those seeking asylum state they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert journalist Saman, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He explains he had to live on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which offers food, according to official policies.

"Honestly stating, this is not adequate to support a dignified existence," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are mostly restricted from employment, he feels numerous are vulnerable to being manipulated and are essentially "obligated to work in the black economy for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: "We make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the right to be employed - granting this would establish an motivation for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can take multiple years to be processed with nearly a one-third requiring over 12 months, according to official figures from the late March this current year.

Saman says being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite simple to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have done that.

However, he explains that those he met working in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "confused", especially those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals expended all of their money to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application refused and now they've lost their entire investment."

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

"If [they] state you're prohibited to work - but also [you]