Why Our Team Went Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish individuals decided to go undercover to uncover a operation behind unlawful High Street establishments because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was operating mini-marts, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout the UK, and sought to find out more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Armed with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to work, seeking to buy and manage a small shop from which to distribute contraband cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to uncover how straightforward it is for someone in these conditions to set up and run a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. The individuals involved, we learned, compensate Kurds who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, assisting to deceive the officials.

Ali and Saman also managed to secretly record one of those at the centre of the network, who claimed that he could remove official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring unauthorized laborers.

"I sought to play a role in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to say that they don't speak for Kurdish people," explains one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his well-being was at risk.

The reporters admit that disagreements over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame tensions.

But Ali says that the unauthorized employment "harms the entire Kurdish community" and he considers obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into public view".

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

He says this particularly impressed him when he realized that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating covertly. Signs and flags could be observed at the protest, reading "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing online response to the investigation from within the Kurdish population and say it has caused significant outrage for certain individuals. One social media comment they observed said: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

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

They have also encountered claims that they were agents for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and extremely troubled about the activities of such persons."

Most of those seeking asylum state they are escaping political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to live on less than £20 a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now get about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides food, according to Home Office policies.

"Honestly stating, this is not enough to maintain a acceptable existence," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely restricted from employment, he believes a significant number are open to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to work in the unofficial sector for as little as £3 per hour".

A representative for the authorities commented: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant refugee applicants the permission to work - doing so would create an motivation for people to travel to the UK illegally."

Asylum cases can require years to be processed with nearly a 33% taking more than one year, according to official statistics from the end of March this year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to accomplish, but he told the team he would never have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he encountered working in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals spent all of their savings to migrate to the UK, they had their refugee application refused and now they've sacrificed all they had."

Ali agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] declare you're forbidden to be employed - but also [you]