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

Two Kurdish-background men decided to operate secretly to expose a operation behind unlawful commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are damaging the standing of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating convenience stores, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and aimed to find out more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, seeking to acquire and operate a mini-mart from which to trade unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to discover how easy it is for a person in these circumstances to establish and operate a enterprise on the main street in plain sight. The individuals participating, we learned, pay Kurds who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, enabling to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also were able to discreetly document one of those at the core of the organization, who asserted that he could eliminate official fines of up to £60k faced those hiring illegal workers.

"I wanted to contribute in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for our community," says one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the country without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a territory that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his life was at threat.

The journalists recognize that tensions over illegal immigration are significant in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the inquiry could inflame conflicts.

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

Furthermore, Ali says he was worried the reporting could be used by the radical right.

He says this particularly struck him when he noticed that far-right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Banners and flags could be observed at the rally, reading "we demand our nation back".

The reporters have both been tracking online reaction to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has sparked intense outrage for certain individuals. One social media comment they spotted said: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

A different urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also seen accusations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its image. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and deeply concerned about the behavior of such people."

Most of those seeking refugee status state they are escaping politically motivated persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He states he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides food, according to Home Office regulations.

"Honestly speaking, this is not enough to support a respectable lifestyle," says Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely restricted from working, he feels many are open to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to work in the black sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to be employed - doing so would create an incentive for people to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee cases can require years to be decided with approximately a one-third taking more than 12 months, according to government data from the end of March this year.

The reporter says working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very simple to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have done that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he met laboring in unauthorized convenience stores during his work seemed "disoriented", notably those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals used their entire funds to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've lost their entire investment."

Ali agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] state you're prohibited to be employed - but simultaneously [you]