Why We Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background men decided to work covertly to uncover a organization behind unlawful commercial businesses because the lawbreakers are causing harm the image of Kurds in the Britain, they state.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was managing convenience stores, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and sought to learn more about how it operated and who was involved.

Equipped with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, seeking to purchase and run a small shop from which to sell unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to uncover how simple it is for someone in these conditions to establish and run a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. Those participating, we discovered, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, enabling to deceive the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to secretly film one of those at the heart of the operation, who claimed that he could remove official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those hiring illegal workers.

"I aimed to participate in revealing these illegal practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't represent Kurdish people," explains one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a area that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his well-being was at risk.

The investigators recognize that tensions over unauthorized immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been concerned that the probe could inflame tensions.

But Ali says that the unauthorized working "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he considers driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, the journalist says he was anxious the reporting could be exploited by the extreme right.

He states this especially struck him when he noticed that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity protest was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Banners and banners could be observed at the rally, reading "we demand our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish population and report it has sparked significant anger for certain individuals. One social media comment they observed stated: "How can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

One more urged their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen allegations that they were informants for the UK authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish community," Saman explains. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its reputation. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly troubled about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking asylum say they are escaping political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a organization that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the UK, struggled for many years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides food, according to official regulations.

"Realistically saying, this isn't sufficient to support a respectable lifestyle," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally restricted from employment, he believes a significant number are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are effectively "forced to work in the unofficial sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department commented: "We do not apologize for refusing to grant refugee applicants the right to work - doing so would generate an reason for people to travel to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be processed with nearly a one-third requiring more than one year, according to official statistics from the late March this current year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to accomplish, but he told the team he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed working in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals spent their entire savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed in dire straits.

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