Why Our Team Went Undercover to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish-background individuals consented to go undercover to expose a operation behind illegal main street businesses because the lawbreakers are causing harm the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they explain.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was operating small shops, barbershops and car washes across the UK, and sought to learn more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Prepared with covert cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to be employed, seeking to purchase and run a convenience store from which to sell contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how easy it is for an individual in these conditions to start and operate a enterprise on the commercial area in full view. Those involved, we discovered, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to register the businesses in their names, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also were able to secretly document one of those at the centre of the network, who asserted that he could eliminate government penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those employing unauthorized laborers.

"I aimed to play a role in revealing these unlawful practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not characterize our community," says Saman, a former asylum seeker personally. Saman came to the UK without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his safety was at risk.

The journalists acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the investigation could worsen conflicts.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized labor "negatively affects the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he feels obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Additionally, the journalist mentions he was anxious the coverage could be exploited by the far-right.

He says this especially impressed him when he noticed that radical right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating secretly. Signs and flags could be spotted at the protest, displaying "we want our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been observing online feedback to the exposé from within the Kurdish-origin community and explain it has sparked strong outrage for some. One Facebook post they found read: "How can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

One more called for their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also read allegations that they were informants for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish identity and profoundly worried about the activities of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status claim they are fleeing political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He states he had to live on less than twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes meals, according to official policies.

"Realistically saying, this is not adequate to sustain a dignified lifestyle," says the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly restricted from employment, he feels a significant number are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are practically "forced to labor in the unofficial sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities commented: "The government make no apology for not granting refugee applicants the authorization to work - doing so would establish an incentive for people to travel to the UK without authorization."

Refugee cases can take a long time to be resolved with approximately a one-third taking over one year, according to official data from the spring this year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely simple to achieve, but he told the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he met working in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "confused", particularly those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"They used all their funds to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited all they had."

Ali agrees that these individuals seemed desperate.

"If [they] state you're not allowed to work - but also [you]