The Reasons We Went Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish men decided to go undercover to expose a operation behind illegal main street businesses because the criminals are causing harm the image of Kurdish people in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin investigators who have both lived lawfully in the UK for a long time.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was managing convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across Britain, and wanted to learn more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Equipped with covert cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, seeking to acquire and operate a convenience store from which to sell unlawful tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to uncover how easy it is for an individual in these conditions to establish and manage a business on the main street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their names, assisting to deceive the authorities.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly film one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could remove official sanctions of up to £60k faced those using illegal employees.

"I wanted to contribute in revealing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't represent us," states Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter came to the country illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a territory that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his life was at risk.

The journalists recognize that conflicts over illegal immigration are high in the UK and explain they have both been worried that the probe could intensify hostilities.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized labor "damages the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he feels driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist says he was anxious the coverage could be used by the extreme right.

He states this particularly impressed him when he realized that extreme right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Banners and banners could be seen at the gathering, displaying "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking online feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish population and say it has caused intense anger for certain individuals. One social media post they observed said: "How can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

A different urged their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also read allegations that they were agents for the British government, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our aim is to expose those who have harmed its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the actions of such persons."

Most of those applying for asylum claim they are fleeing politically motivated persecution, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He says he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now get about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which includes food, according to government guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't sufficient to maintain a dignified life," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prohibited from employment, he believes a significant number are open to being taken advantage of and are essentially "obligated to work in the illegal market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities commented: "The government make no apology for denying asylum seekers the right to work - granting this would generate an motivation for people to travel to the UK without authorization."

Refugee applications can require a long time to be processed with nearly a one-third taking more than one year, according to official statistics from the end of March this current year.

The reporter says being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very easy to achieve, 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", notably those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals expended all of their money to travel to the UK, they had their asylum refused and now they've forfeited everything."

Ali concurs that these individuals seemed desperate.

"When [they] say you're prohibited to be employed - but additionally [you]