The Reasons Our Team Went Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish-background men agreed to go undercover to expose a network behind unlawful High Street businesses because the criminals are causing harm the standing of Kurdish people in the UK, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both lived legally in the UK for many years.

Investigators found that a Kurdish crime network was operating mini-marts, hair salons and car washes throughout Britain, and sought to find out more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to be employed, looking to buy and manage a convenience store from which to distribute contraband cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to uncover how simple it is for someone in these situations to establish and operate a business on the main street in public view. The individuals involved, we learned, compensate Kurds who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their identities, enabling to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to secretly record one of those at the core of the operation, who claimed that he could erase government penalties of up to £60,000 faced those using unauthorized workers.

"I wanted to contribute in revealing these unlawful activities [...] to say that they don't speak for our community," explains one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his life was at danger.

The reporters acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been worried that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized working "harms the whole Kurdish community" and he feels driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, Ali says he was worried the reporting could be exploited by the radical right.

He states this particularly affected him when he realized that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating secretly. Signs and banners could be observed at the rally, reading "we demand our nation back".

The reporters have both been tracking online reaction to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has sparked strong frustration for certain individuals. One social media comment they found stated: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

Another demanded their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also read accusations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter states. "Our aim is to uncover those who have damaged its image. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply worried about the actions of such individuals."

Most of those seeking refugee status state they are fleeing political oppression, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a organization that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for many years. He states he had to survive on under £20 a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes meals, according to government policies.

"Practically saying, this is not adequate to support a acceptable life," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from working, he thinks numerous are open to being manipulated and are practically "compelled to labor in the unofficial sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities said: "The government make no apology for denying refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - doing so would establish an motivation for individuals to travel to the UK illegally."

Asylum cases can require multiple years to be resolved with nearly a one-third taking more than a year, according to government figures from the end of March this year.

The reporter says working illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to achieve, but he told us he would never have done that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he met laboring in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "confused", notably those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"They expended all their savings to travel to the UK, they had their asylum rejected and now they've lost all they had."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] state you're forbidden to work - but also [you]