The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish-background individuals agreed to operate secretly to uncover a organization behind illegal commercial establishments because the wrongdoers are damaging the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they say.

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

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was managing mini-marts, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout the United Kingdom, and wanted to discover more about how it operated and who was involved.

Armed with secret cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to work, looking to buy and operate a convenience store from which to trade contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were successful to uncover how easy it is for a person in these conditions to start and operate a commercial operation on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we found, pay Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also were able to covertly film one of those at the centre of the network, who asserted that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those employing unauthorized employees.

"Personally aimed to contribute in revealing these unlawful activities [...] to declare that they don't speak for our community," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter came to the country illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a region that covers the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his well-being was at risk.

The reporters acknowledge that tensions over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the investigation could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized employment "negatively affects the entire Kurdish community" and he believes driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, the journalist explains he was worried the publication could be seized upon by the far-right.

He explains this especially impressed him when he discovered that far-right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was happening in London on one of the weekends he was operating undercover. Placards and banners could be observed at the rally, showing "we want our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking online response to the exposé from within the Kurdish community and say it has generated significant anger for some. One Facebook comment they found said: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

Another demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also encountered accusations that they were informants for the British authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter states. "Our aim is to reveal those who have damaged its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly troubled about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are fleeing politically motivated persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist Saman, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He says he had to survive on less than £20 a per week while his refugee application was processed.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes meals, according to official policies.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't adequate to support a dignified lifestyle," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from employment, he believes numerous are open to being exploited and are essentially "compelled to labor in the unofficial economy for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A representative for the Home Office stated: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to be employed - doing so would create an motivation for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can require years to be resolved with approximately a one-third requiring over 12 months, according to official data from the end of March this year.

The reporter says being employed without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been extremely easy to do, but he informed the team he would not have done that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he encountered employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals spent all their funds to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've lost all they had."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] say you're forbidden to work - but simultaneously [you]