Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish-background men consented to go undercover to uncover a network behind illegal High Street enterprises because the wrongdoers are damaging the image of Kurds in the Britain, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish reporters who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was running convenience stores, barbershops and car washes the length of Britain, and sought to discover more about how it worked and who was taking part.

Armed with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to be employed, looking to purchase and operate a small shop from which to sell unlawful tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how easy it is for a person in these conditions to establish and manage a enterprise on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals participating, we found, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, enabling to mislead the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also managed to secretly film one of those at the core of the network, who stated that he could erase government penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using illegal laborers.

"Personally aimed to participate in revealing these illegal practices [...] to say that they don't represent Kurdish people," explains Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. The reporter came to the country without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that spans the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his well-being was at threat.

The journalists acknowledge that disagreements over illegal migration are high in the UK and explain they have both been worried that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But Ali says that the unauthorized labor "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he believes driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, Ali says he was worried the coverage could be seized upon by the far-right.

He states this particularly impressed him when he realized that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was taking place in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating covertly. Banners and flags could be observed at the rally, showing "we demand our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing online reaction to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has caused strong frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they observed read: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

One more demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also seen claims that they were agents for the UK government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly concerned about the behavior of such persons."

Most of those seeking asylum say they are fleeing political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that helps refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially came to the UK, experienced challenges for years. He states 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 accommodation which includes meals, according to official regulations.

"Realistically speaking, this is not sufficient to sustain a dignified lifestyle," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are largely prohibited from employment, he thinks numerous are vulnerable to being exploited and are effectively "compelled to work in the illegal economy for as low as £3 per hour".

A representative for the government department commented: "We are unapologetic for denying refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would generate an motivation for individuals to migrate to the UK illegally."

Refugee cases can take a long time to be decided with almost a third requiring more than a year, according to official statistics from the spring this current year.

Saman says working illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he explained to us he would never have engaged in that.

However, he says that those he interviewed working in unauthorized mini-marts during his investigation seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals expended all their money to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've forfeited everything."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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