Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background men agreed to operate secretly to expose a network behind illegal commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are causing harm the image of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

The team found that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and aimed to discover more about how it operated and who was involved.

Prepared with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to work, seeking to buy and run a mini-mart from which to trade unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how easy it is for a person in these situations to start and run a commercial operation on the commercial area in plain sight. The individuals involved, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their names, enabling to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to covertly document one of those at the heart of the operation, who claimed that he could remove official penalties of up to £60k imposed on those employing unauthorized workers.

"I aimed to participate in uncovering these unlawful operations [...] to say that they don't speak for us," states one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered the country without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that spans the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his life was at risk.

The reporters recognize that tensions over unauthorized immigration are significant in the UK and say they have both been concerned that the inquiry could inflame hostilities.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized labor "harms the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, Ali says he was anxious the publication could be seized upon by the extreme right.

He explains this particularly struck him when he realized that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity protest was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Placards and banners could be spotted at the rally, displaying "we demand our nation back".

The reporters have both been monitoring social media feedback to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has caused intense anger for some. One Facebook message they found stated: "How can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another urged their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also encountered allegations that they were informants for the British government, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish-origin population," Saman states. "Our goal is to expose those who have harmed its image. We are honored of our Kurdish heritage and extremely concerned about the activities of such persons."

The majority of those seeking refugee status say they are fleeing political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a charity that helps refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now get about forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes food, according to Home Office policies.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't adequate to maintain a dignified existence," states the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from employment, he thinks a significant number are susceptible to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the unofficial market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the right to be employed - doing so would generate an motivation for people to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Refugee cases can require years to be decided with approximately a 33% requiring over 12 months, according to government figures from the end of March this year.

Saman says being employed without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to do, but he explained to the team he would not have participated in that.

However, he says that those he interviewed employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They used their entire money to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've sacrificed everything."

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] state you're forbidden to be employed - but also [you]