The Reasons Our Team Went Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to go undercover to expose a operation behind unlawful main street enterprises because the lawbreakers are damaging the image of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The two, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish journalists who have both lived legally in the United Kingdom for many years.

The team discovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating mini-marts, hair salons and car washes across the United Kingdom, and sought to learn more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Prepared with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to work, looking to purchase and run a small shop from which to sell contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to discover how easy it is for a person in these conditions to establish and operate a commercial operation on the main street in plain sight. Those participating, we learned, pay Kurds who have UK residency to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, enabling to fool the government agencies.

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

"Personally aimed to play a role in exposing these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not characterize our community," explains one reporter, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter came to the UK illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his well-being was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been worried that the inquiry could intensify tensions.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he believes compelled to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was anxious the reporting could be exploited by the extreme right.

He explains this especially struck him when he realized that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating secretly. Signs and banners could be spotted at the rally, reading "we want our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring online feedback to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has caused intense outrage for some. One social media message they observed said: "How can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen claims that they were informants for the UK government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman says. "Our goal is to reveal those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly troubled about the activities of such people."

Most of those seeking asylum say they are escaping political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a charity that assists asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the UK.

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

Refugee applicants now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides meals, according to official regulations.

"Realistically stating, this is not adequate to maintain a respectable life," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are generally prohibited from employment, he thinks a significant number are open to being taken advantage of and are essentially "compelled to labor in the black market for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A representative for the authorities said: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant refugee applicants the permission to work - granting this would generate an incentive for individuals to migrate to the UK illegally."

Refugee applications can require multiple years to be resolved with approximately a third requiring over a year, according to official data from the spring this year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very straightforward to accomplish, but he told the team he would never have done that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he interviewed working in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "lost", particularly those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals used all their money to travel to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] declare you're forbidden to work - but also [you]