The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background men agreed to operate secretly to reveal a organization behind illegal commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are damaging the image of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they say.

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

The team uncovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout the United Kingdom, and wanted to discover more about how it worked and who was involved.

Prepared with covert cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to be employed, looking to purchase and manage a mini-mart from which to distribute contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how straightforward it is for an individual in these situations to establish and manage a business on the main street in public view. Those participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the operations in their names, enabling to mislead the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly record one of those at the heart of the operation, who claimed that he could remove official sanctions of up to £60k encountered those employing unauthorized laborers.

"I aimed to play a role in exposing these illegal operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for us," says Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman came to the country without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a region that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his safety was at danger.

The reporters admit that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the probe could intensify tensions.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal working "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he considers driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali mentions he was worried the coverage could be exploited by the far-right.

He explains this particularly affected him when he noticed that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was taking place in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating secretly. Placards and flags could be seen at the protest, reading "we demand our nation back".

Both journalists have both been monitoring social media response to the investigation from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has sparked strong outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they found read: "In what way can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

Another urged their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen allegations that they were agents for the UK government, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter states. "Our goal is to expose those who have compromised its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely worried about the activities of such persons."

The majority of those applying for asylum say they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He states he had to survive on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was processed.

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

"Honestly speaking, this isn't sufficient to maintain a respectable lifestyle," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are mostly restricted from working, he thinks a significant number are susceptible to being manipulated and are effectively "compelled to labor in the unofficial economy for as little as three pounds per hour".

A representative for the Home Office commented: "The government do not apologize for not granting refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - granting this would generate an motivation for people to come to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee applications can take years to be resolved with almost a 33% taking more than a year, according to official data from the spring this current year.

Saman explains working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he told us he would never have done that.

However, he states that those he encountered employed in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", notably those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They used all their savings to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

The other reporter agrees that these individuals seemed hopeless.

"When [they] state you're not allowed to be employed - but simultaneously [you]