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

Two Kurdish men agreed to go undercover to reveal a network behind illegal main street businesses because the wrongdoers are causing harm the image of Kurdish people in the UK, they state.

The two, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin investigators who have both lived legally in the UK for many years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish crime network was operating small shops, hair salons and car washes the length of Britain, and aimed to find out more about how it operated and who was participating.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to purchase and operate a convenience store from which to sell contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to uncover how simple it is for someone in these circumstances to establish and run a business on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals participating, we discovered, pay Kurds who have UK residency to register the operations in their names, enabling to deceive the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly record one of those at the heart of the organization, who stated that he could erase official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring unauthorized workers.

"I aimed to contribute in uncovering these unlawful operations [...] to say that they do not speak for our community," says Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that spans the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his well-being was at threat.

The reporters recognize that conflicts over illegal migration are high in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the inquiry could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized working "damages the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, Ali says he was worried the reporting could be seized upon by the extreme right.

He says this especially struck him when he realized that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Placards and flags could be seen at the protest, displaying "we want our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing online reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and say it has caused intense frustration for some. One Facebook message they observed said: "How can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

A different urged their relatives in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also read allegations that they were spies for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter states. "Our goal is to expose those who have damaged its standing. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely concerned about the behavior of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum say they are fleeing political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert journalist Saman, who, when he initially came to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to live on under £20 a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes meals, according to government guidance.

"Realistically saying, this is not adequate to maintain a dignified lifestyle," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prevented from working, he feels numerous are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are effectively "obligated to labor in the illegal economy for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the government department said: "We do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the right to be employed - doing so would establish an reason for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can take a long time to be decided with approximately a 33% taking over 12 months, according to official data from the late March this year.

The reporter explains being employed illegally in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely simple to achieve, but he explained to us he would never have engaged in that.

However, he explains that those he met working in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals spent all their savings to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

The other reporter agrees that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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