Why Our Team Went Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish-background men consented to work covertly to reveal a organization behind unlawful main street establishments because the lawbreakers are causing harm the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they state.

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

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing mini-marts, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout the UK, and wanted to learn more about how it operated and who was participating.

Equipped with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to work, seeking to acquire and manage a small shop from which to sell illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how simple it is for someone in these conditions to set up and run a commercial operation on the commercial area in full view. The individuals involved, we found, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, assisting to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to secretly film one of those at the centre of the operation, who claimed that he could eliminate government fines of up to £60,000 faced those using unauthorized workers.

"I wanted to play a role in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to declare that they don't characterize our community," states Saman, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman came to the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that covers the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his well-being was at risk.

The reporters admit that conflicts over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been concerned that the inquiry could inflame tensions.

But Ali says that the unauthorized employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, Ali explains he was anxious the publication could be seized upon by the radical right.

He says this especially affected him when he noticed that extreme right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating covertly. Banners and flags could be seen at the gathering, displaying "we want our country returned".

The reporters have both been observing social media feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and report it has sparked strong outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook post they observed said: "In what way can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also read accusations that they were informants for the UK government, and traitors to other Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish population," Saman states. "Our goal is to reveal those who have compromised its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly concerned about the activities of such people."

The majority of those applying for asylum say they are fleeing political discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he initially came to the UK, faced difficulties for many years. He explains he had to live on under £20 a week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now receive about £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which offers meals, according to government policies.

"Realistically stating, this is not sufficient to support a respectable existence," explains Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from employment, he believes numerous are open to being exploited and are effectively "obligated to labor in the illegal sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the government department said: "The government do not apologize for not granting refugee applicants the permission to work - granting this would establish an motivation for people to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can require years to be resolved with almost a third requiring more than one year, according to official data from the spring this current year.

The reporter states working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite straightforward to accomplish, but he informed us he would never have done that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he met employed in unauthorized convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

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

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] say you're not allowed to be employed - but also [you]