Why Our Team Went Covert to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to go undercover to expose a operation behind unlawful main street enterprises because the lawbreakers are damaging the standing of Kurdish people in the UK, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for many years.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across Britain, and sought to learn more about how it worked and who was taking part.

Prepared with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to work, seeking to purchase and manage a small shop from which to trade illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how easy it is for an individual in these conditions to set up and run a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. The individuals participating, we learned, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to register the operations in their names, enabling to deceive the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to discreetly film one of those at the heart of the network, who claimed that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to £60,000 faced those using illegal laborers.

"Personally wanted to participate in exposing these illegal practices [...] to declare that they do not speak for us," states Saman, a ex- refugee applicant personally. The reporter came to the UK illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his well-being was at risk.

The reporters acknowledge that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are elevated in the UK and explain they have both been concerned that the investigation could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter says that the illegal employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he considers obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali mentions he was concerned the publication could be used by the radical right.

He says this especially struck him when he noticed that radical right activist a prominent activist's national unity rally was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Signs and flags could be spotted at the protest, reading "we demand our nation returned".

The reporters have both been tracking online reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish population and explain it has sparked strong outrage for certain individuals. One social media comment they observed said: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

One more demanded their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also read allegations that they were agents for the British authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman explains. "Our objective is to uncover those who have harmed its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly worried about the actions of such individuals."

Most of those seeking asylum say they are fleeing political persecution, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, faced difficulties for many years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a week while his asylum claim was processed.

Asylum seekers now get approximately £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which offers food, according to government guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't sufficient to sustain a respectable lifestyle," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally restricted from employment, he believes a significant number are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "obligated to labor in the unofficial market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A representative for the authorities stated: "The government are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would create an motivation for people to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum cases can require years to be resolved with approximately a 33% requiring over one year, according to official statistics from the end of March this year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been very straightforward to do, but he told us he would never have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he encountered laboring in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They spent all of their money to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited everything."

The other reporter agrees that these individuals seemed desperate.

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