The Reasons We Chose to Go Undercover to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to work covertly to expose a organization behind unlawful main street establishments because the criminals are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish reporters who have both lived lawfully in the UK for years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish crime network was managing small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout the United Kingdom, and aimed to discover more about how it worked and who was participating.

Equipped with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to be employed, attempting to acquire and operate a mini-mart from which to trade contraband tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how easy it is for someone in these conditions to start and manage a enterprise on the High Street in plain sight. Those involved, we learned, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, helping to mislead the officials.

Ali and Saman also managed to secretly record one of those at the heart of the network, who asserted that he could remove government penalties of up to £60,000 encountered those hiring illegal laborers.

"I aimed to participate in exposing these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not speak for us," states Saman, a former refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a territory that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a country - because his life was at risk.

The reporters acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal labor "negatively affects the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he considers compelled to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist says he was concerned the coverage could be exploited by the radical right.

He states this particularly impressed him when he realized that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Signs and flags could be observed at the gathering, showing "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been monitoring social media feedback to the inquiry from within the Kurdish population and say it has caused strong anger for some. One social media message they spotted stated: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

A different demanded their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also read allegations that they were informants for the British government, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have damaged its image. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and deeply concerned about the behavior of such people."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that helps asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He states he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which offers food, according to government policies.

"Realistically speaking, this is not adequate to support a dignified life," explains Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from working, he believes numerous are open to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to work in the unofficial economy for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A representative for the government department said: "We are unapologetic for refusing to grant refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - doing so would establish an motivation for people to come to the UK without authorization."

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

The reporter says being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been quite straightforward to accomplish, but he explained to the team he would never have participated in that.

However, he explains that those he interviewed working in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all their savings to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed all they had."

Ali concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

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