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

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals consented to go undercover to uncover a network behind illegal main street enterprises because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

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

The team uncovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout Britain, and wanted to learn more about how it worked and who was taking part.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to purchase and manage a mini-mart from which to trade illegal tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to discover how straightforward it is for someone in these situations to set up and operate a enterprise on the commercial area in full view. Those participating, we found, pay Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, helping to fool the authorities.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly record one of those at the heart of the operation, who claimed that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those hiring unauthorized workers.

"I sought to contribute in revealing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for our community," explains one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter came to the country without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his safety was at risk.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized immigration are high in the UK and state they have both been worried that the probe could inflame tensions.

But Ali explains that the illegal working "damages the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist says he was concerned the coverage could be exploited by the radical right.

He explains this notably impressed him when he realized that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and banners could be observed at the protest, reading "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been monitoring online reaction to the exposé from inside the Kurdish-origin population and report it has caused intense frustration for some. One Facebook message they observed read: "In what way can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read allegations that they were informants for the British government, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no intention of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman explains. "Our objective is to expose those who have compromised its image. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the behavior of such people."

The majority of those applying for asylum claim they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for many years. He explains he had to survive on under twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now receive about £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which includes meals, according to Home Office regulations.

"Honestly saying, this isn't sufficient to support a acceptable existence," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from employment, he feels a significant number are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "forced to work in the unofficial economy for as little as £3 per hour".

A representative for the government department said: "We do not apologize for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to be employed - doing so would establish an motivation for people to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum cases can take years to be processed with almost a one-third requiring over a year, according to government figures from the end of March this current year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely straightforward to achieve, but he told the team he would not have engaged in that.

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

"These individuals expended all their savings to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've sacrificed everything."

Ali concurs that these people seemed desperate.

"When [they] state you're forbidden to work - but simultaneously [you]