The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background men consented to work covertly to uncover a organization behind unlawful main street businesses because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish reporters who have both resided legally in the UK for years.

The team found that a Kurdish crime network was managing small shops, barbershops and car washes throughout Britain, and aimed to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Equipped with covert cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to be employed, seeking to purchase and operate a convenience store from which to sell unlawful tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to discover how simple it is for someone in these situations to set up and run a commercial operation on the commercial area in plain sight. Those participating, we learned, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, assisting to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also managed to discreetly film one of those at the core of the organization, who claimed that he could erase government penalties of up to £60,000 faced those using unauthorized employees.

"I wanted to participate in uncovering these illegal practices [...] to declare that they do not characterize our community," states one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the country without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his life was at risk.

The investigators acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized migration are significant in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the investigation could intensify hostilities.

But Ali states that the unauthorized employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was worried the publication could be exploited by the extreme right.

He says this especially impressed him when he discovered that far-right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating covertly. Banners and flags could be spotted at the gathering, reading "we want our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been observing online response to the inquiry from within the Kurdish population and report it has sparked significant frustration for certain individuals. One social media message they found read: "In what way can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

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

They have also read claims that they were spies for the British authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to reveal those who have harmed its reputation. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply worried about the behavior of such persons."

The majority of those applying for refugee status state they are fleeing politically motivated discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He explains he had to survive on under twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was considered.

Refugee applicants now receive approximately £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes food, according to Home Office regulations.

"Honestly stating, this isn't adequate to sustain a acceptable existence," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from working, he believes a significant number are open to being exploited and are practically "obligated to labor in the unofficial economy for as low as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the authorities said: "The government are unapologetic for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to work - doing so would establish an incentive for individuals to come to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum cases can require multiple years to be resolved with approximately a third requiring more than 12 months, according to government data from the late March this year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very straightforward to accomplish, but he informed the team he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he encountered laboring in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "confused", notably those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals spent their entire funds to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've forfeited everything."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed in dire straits.

"If [they] state you're not allowed to work - but simultaneously [you]