Why Our Team Went Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish men decided to work covertly to expose a network behind illegal main street establishments because the lawbreakers are damaging the standing of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided lawfully in the UK for many years.

The team discovered that a Kurdish criminal operation was managing convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout Britain, and wanted to learn more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Equipped with covert cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, seeking to acquire and manage a mini-mart from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to reveal how simple it is for an individual in these situations to set up and run a enterprise on the High Street in full view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the businesses in their names, helping to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly record one of those at the centre of the network, who claimed that he could eliminate government penalties of up to £60k imposed on those hiring unauthorized workers.

"I sought to contribute in revealing these illegal operations [...] to say that they don't represent our community," says one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a area that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his life was at risk.

The journalists admit that tensions over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter states that the illegal labor "negatively affects the entire Kurdish community" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, the journalist explains he was concerned the reporting could be exploited by the radical right.

He says this especially impressed him when he realized that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity march was taking place in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating secretly. Banners and flags could be seen at the gathering, reading "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media response to the exposé from within the Kurdish community and report it has generated strong outrage for some. One Facebook post they spotted said: "In what way can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

A different demanded their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also seen claims that they were agents for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish-origin community," Saman says. "Our objective is to uncover those who have compromised its standing. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply worried about the actions of such people."

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

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He says he had to live on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which provides meals, according to Home Office regulations.

"Practically stating, this is not sufficient to support a acceptable existence," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely restricted from working, he believes numerous are open to being manipulated and are practically "forced to work in the illegal economy for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "We do not apologize for refusing to grant refugee applicants the right to work - granting this would generate an reason for individuals to travel to the UK illegally."

Refugee applications can take multiple years to be processed with nearly a one-third requiring more than one year, according to government figures from the spring this current year.

The reporter says working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely straightforward to achieve, but he explained to us he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he interviewed laboring in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals spent their entire money to come to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

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