Why Our Team Went Covert to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to operate secretly to expose a operation behind illegal High Street establishments because the criminals are negatively affecting the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was managing mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and wanted to discover more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Armed with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to work, looking to acquire and manage a small shop from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to reveal how straightforward it is for an individual in these conditions to start and run a commercial operation on the commercial area in public view. The individuals involved, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to register the operations in their names, helping to mislead the officials.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to covertly record one of those at the core of the organization, who stated that he could remove official fines of up to £60k encountered those hiring unauthorized workers.

"I wanted to participate in exposing these unlawful activities [...] to declare that they do not speak for Kurdish people," states Saman, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman came to the United Kingdom illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his life was at risk.

The investigators acknowledge that disagreements over illegal migration are high in the United Kingdom and state they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify conflicts.

But Ali says that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he considers obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was anxious the reporting could be used by the far-right.

He says this particularly affected him when he discovered that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Signs and flags could be spotted at the protest, showing "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been tracking social media response to the investigation from inside the Kurdish community and say it has sparked intense anger for certain individuals. One social media post they found said: "How can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

Another demanded their relatives in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also encountered allegations that they were agents for the British government, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to uncover those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those applying for refugee status state they are fleeing political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a organization that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

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

Refugee applicants now receive about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which offers meals, according to official policies.

"Practically stating, this is not enough to maintain a dignified life," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prevented from employment, he believes numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are effectively "obligated to labor in the illegal sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the authorities said: "The government do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the permission to work - doing so would create an incentive for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can take years to be decided with almost a third taking over 12 months, according to official statistics from the end of March this current year.

Saman explains being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been very simple to achieve, but he explained to the team he would not have participated in that.

However, he says that those he met employed in unauthorized convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"They used all their money to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] declare you're prohibited to work - but also [you]