The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish-background men agreed to go undercover to uncover a network behind illegal commercial enterprises because the criminals are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish crime network was managing small shops, hair salons and car washes across the United Kingdom, and sought to learn more about how it operated and who was involved.

Armed with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to be employed, looking to buy and manage a mini-mart from which to trade unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

They were successful to reveal how simple it is for an individual in these situations to set up and manage a commercial operation on the High Street in plain sight. Those participating, we discovered, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, enabling to deceive the authorities.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to discreetly film one of those at the heart of the network, who stated that he could remove official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring unauthorized laborers.

"I sought to play a role in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to declare that they do not represent Kurdish people," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker personally. Saman came to the country without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that spans the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a country - because his safety was at danger.

The investigators recognize that conflicts over unauthorized migration are elevated in the UK and explain they have both been worried that the probe could inflame conflicts.

But the other reporter says that the illegal employment "damages the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was concerned the publication could be used by the radical right.

He states this particularly affected him when he realized that extreme right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Banners and flags could be spotted at the protest, displaying "we demand our nation back".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media response to the exposé from within the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated intense frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook post they observed said: "In what way can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

Another urged their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also read claims that they were spies for the UK government, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely worried about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those applying for refugee status say they are fleeing political discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the UK, struggled for years. He explains he had to survive on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now receive about forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes meals, according to Home Office regulations.

"Realistically speaking, this is not sufficient to maintain a respectable existence," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are largely restricted from employment, he feels numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are essentially "obligated to work in the illegal market for as little as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the authorities stated: "The government do not apologize for refusing to grant refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - doing so would generate an reason for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can require a long time to be processed with nearly a third taking more than 12 months, according to government figures from the end of March this year.

Saman says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely straightforward to achieve, but he explained to us he would not have done that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he interviewed laboring in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"They spent all their money to come to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've lost all they had."

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

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