The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish-background individuals decided to go undercover to reveal a organization behind illegal main street establishments because the criminals are causing harm the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both lived lawfully in the United Kingdom for many years.

Investigators found that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating convenience stores, hair salons and car washes across the United Kingdom, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was participating.

Armed with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to work, looking to buy and operate a mini-mart from which to sell illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to discover how straightforward it is for an individual in these conditions to start and manage a business on the commercial area in public view. The individuals participating, we learned, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to discreetly record one of those at the centre of the operation, who claimed that he could eliminate government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using illegal employees.

"Personally aimed to participate in exposing these illegal practices [...] to say that they do not characterize us," explains one reporter, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the UK illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his life was at threat.

The reporters admit that disagreements over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and state they have both been worried that the probe could inflame hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized employment "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Furthermore, the journalist says he was worried the coverage could be used by the radical right.

He states this notably struck him when he noticed that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity protest was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Signs and banners could be observed at the rally, showing "we demand our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and explain it has caused strong anger for some. One social media comment they found stated: "How can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

A different urged their families in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also encountered claims that they were spies for the British authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no intention of damaging the Kurdish population," one reporter says. "Our goal is to uncover those who have compromised its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply troubled about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those applying for refugee status claim they are escaping political discrimination, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a organization that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, struggled for years. He states he had to survive on under £20 a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now get approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which offers meals, according to government guidance.

"Realistically saying, this isn't sufficient to maintain a respectable existence," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from working, he thinks many are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "compelled to labor in the black sector for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities stated: "We make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the authorization to work - doing so would establish an reason for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee applications can take multiple years to be resolved with approximately a one-third requiring more than a year, according to government figures from the spring this year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or convenience store would have been quite easy to do, but he informed the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed laboring in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "lost", particularly those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals spent all their funds to migrate to the UK, they had their asylum refused and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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