Why Our Team Went Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals consented to go undercover to expose a organization behind illegal commercial businesses because the criminals are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was running small shops, barbershops and car washes the length of the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Prepared with secret recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to work, seeking to acquire and run a convenience store from which to sell contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how simple it is for an individual in these circumstances to start and run a commercial operation on the High Street in full view. Those involved, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the businesses in their identities, assisting to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to secretly document one of those at the heart of the operation, who stated that he could remove government penalties of up to £60,000 encountered those employing unauthorized laborers.

"Personally aimed to participate in revealing these illegal practices [...] to say that they don't represent our community," says one reporter, a former refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered the UK illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his well-being was at danger.

The investigators recognize that disagreements over illegal immigration are high in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the investigation could inflame hostilities.

But the other reporter states that the illegal employment "damages the entire Kurdish population" and he feels driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, Ali mentions he was anxious the publication could be exploited by the radical right.

He says this especially struck him when he discovered that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Placards and banners could be seen at the protest, reading "we demand our country returned".

Both journalists have both been monitoring social media feedback to the exposé from inside the Kurdish community and report it has generated strong frustration for some. One Facebook message they found stated: "How can we locate and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

One more urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen accusations that they were informants for the British government, and traitors to other Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its reputation. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and deeply troubled about the behavior of such people."

Most of those applying for refugee status say they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He says he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides food, according to government regulations.

"Honestly saying, this is not enough to sustain a respectable life," explains Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly restricted from working, he feels many are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are effectively "compelled to labor in the illegal sector for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A official for the authorities stated: "We make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to be employed - doing so would generate an motivation for individuals to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be decided with nearly a third requiring more than a year, according to official statistics from the spring this year.

Saman explains being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely straightforward to accomplish, but he informed the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he met employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his investigation seemed "confused", particularly those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

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

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

"If [they] say you're prohibited to be employed - but simultaneously [you]