The Reasons We Went Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to go undercover to expose a network behind unlawful commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are damaging the reputation of Kurds in the Britain, they state.

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

The team found that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating convenience stores, barbershops and car washes throughout Britain, and sought to discover more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with secret recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to work, attempting to purchase and manage a convenience store from which to trade illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how easy it is for someone in these conditions to set up and manage a business on the main street in plain sight. Those participating, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also were able to discreetly record one of those at the centre of the operation, who stated that he could eliminate government penalties of up to £60k encountered those using unauthorized laborers.

"Personally wanted to participate in exposing these illegal practices [...] to declare that they do not represent Kurdish people," says one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that spans the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his well-being was at risk.

The investigators acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are high in the United Kingdom and say they have both been worried that the investigation could intensify conflicts.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized employment "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Furthermore, Ali says he was worried the reporting could be used by the extreme right.

He states this particularly affected him when he noticed that radical right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was operating secretly. Banners and flags could be seen at the protest, displaying "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been observing online reaction to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish community and explain it has sparked significant frustration for some. One Facebook comment they found stated: "How can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

One more demanded their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also read allegations that they were agents for the British authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman says. "Our goal is to expose those who have damaged its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish heritage and extremely worried about the activities of such people."

Most of those seeking refugee status claim they are escaping political persecution, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that assists refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He states he had to live on under twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes food, according to government guidance.

"Realistically stating, this is not enough to sustain a respectable existence," says the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from employment, he thinks a significant number are open to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the black sector for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department stated: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the permission to be employed - granting this would generate an incentive for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be resolved with approximately a one-third taking more than a year, according to government statistics from the late March this current year.

The reporter explains being employed without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he met laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his investigation seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals spent their entire money to migrate to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've forfeited all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

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