The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish individuals agreed to work covertly to expose a network behind unlawful High Street businesses because the criminals are negatively affecting the image of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they say.

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

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was running mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to purchase and operate a small shop from which to trade unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to uncover how straightforward it is for an individual in these circumstances to start and manage a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. The individuals participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their names, helping to deceive the authorities.

Ali and Saman also managed to secretly record one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could erase official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring unauthorized laborers.

"Personally wanted to contribute in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to say that they do not characterize Kurdish people," explains Saman, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman came to the UK illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his life was at threat.

The investigators admit that tensions over unauthorized migration are elevated in the UK and say they have both been anxious that the investigation could inflame hostilities.

But Ali says that the unauthorized labor "negatively affects the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he feels obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

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

He says this particularly affected him when he realized that far-right activist a prominent activist's national unity protest was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Placards and banners could be spotted at the rally, reading "we demand our nation returned".

The reporters have both been tracking social media reaction to the exposé from inside the Kurdish community and report it has sparked intense anger for certain individuals. One social media comment they observed stated: "In what way can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read claims that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish population," Saman states. "Our objective is to reveal those who have damaged its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish heritage and extremely troubled about the activities of such people."

Most of those seeking refugee status say they are fleeing political persecution, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes meals, according to official guidance.

"Practically speaking, this is not sufficient to maintain a respectable life," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are generally prevented from working, he believes a significant number are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are practically "forced to work in the black market for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "We are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the permission to work - granting this would create an reason for individuals to come to the UK without authorization."

Refugee applications can take a long time to be resolved with almost a 33% requiring more than one year, according to official statistics from the spring this current year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite straightforward to achieve, but he explained to us he would never have done that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he met employed in unauthorized convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", particularly those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all of their funds to come to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've lost their entire investment."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] declare you're not allowed to be employed - but simultaneously [you]