The Reasons We Went Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals consented to operate secretly to reveal a organization behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the lawbreakers are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they state.

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

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

Equipped with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to work, looking to purchase and operate a small shop from which to distribute contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to discover how easy it is for an individual in these circumstances to set up and manage a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the businesses in their names, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also were able to discreetly document one of those at the heart of the network, who asserted that he could eliminate official penalties of up to £60,000 imposed on those hiring unauthorized employees.

"I sought to participate in revealing these unlawful activities [...] to say that they do not speak for our community," explains one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that covers the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his safety was at threat.

The journalists recognize that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been concerned that the probe could inflame tensions.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized labor "damages the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he feels driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Additionally, the journalist mentions he was worried the publication could be used by the radical right.

He says this especially struck him when he discovered that far-right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Signs and flags could be seen at the gathering, reading "we demand our country returned".

Both journalists have both been observing social media reaction to the investigation from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has caused intense frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook post they found said: "In what way can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

One more urged their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen allegations that they were spies for the UK authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly troubled about the behavior of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking asylum state they are escaping political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a organization that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He says he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now get about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to government regulations.

"Honestly saying, this is not adequate to sustain a acceptable lifestyle," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly restricted from working, he feels many are open to being exploited and are effectively "obligated to work in the illegal market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office stated: "The government make no apology for not granting refugee applicants the permission to work - granting this would establish an incentive for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee applications can require multiple years to be resolved with approximately a third requiring more than one year, according to official figures from the late March this current year.

The reporter states being employed illegally in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite simple to do, but he told the team he would not have done that.

However, he states that those he met laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals spent all of their money to travel to the UK, they had their asylum rejected and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these people seemed desperate.

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