Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish individuals agreed to work covertly to uncover a organization behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the lawbreakers are damaging the image of Kurds in the UK, they state.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was running small shops, barbershops and car washes the length of the United Kingdom, and wanted to find out more about how it functioned and who was involved.

Equipped with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, attempting to purchase and operate a convenience store from which to trade contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were successful to discover how easy it is for an individual in these circumstances to set up and operate a business on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we discovered, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to register the businesses in their names, assisting to deceive the officials.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly record one of those at the heart of the organization, who claimed that he could erase official penalties of up to £60,000 faced those using unauthorized laborers.

"I aimed to participate in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to declare that they don't speak for Kurdish people," explains one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman came to the country illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his life was at risk.

The investigators acknowledge that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been worried that the inquiry could inflame hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the illegal employment "damages the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he believes compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali says he was concerned the coverage could be exploited by the far-right.

He says this particularly impressed him when he noticed that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Signs and banners could be observed at the gathering, displaying "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been observing social media reaction to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and report it has sparked strong frustration for certain individuals. One social media comment they spotted read: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

Another called for their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also read claims that they were spies for the British authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our goal is to expose those who have damaged its reputation. We are proud of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly troubled about the activities of such persons."

The majority of those applying for asylum state they are escaping politically motivated persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to live on under £20 a week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now get approximately £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which offers meals, according to official guidance.

"Realistically saying, this isn't sufficient to sustain a acceptable lifestyle," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from working, he thinks many are susceptible to being manipulated and are practically "obligated to work in the unofficial market for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A representative for the government department commented: "The government make no apology for denying refugee applicants the authorization to work - doing so would establish an reason for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

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

The reporter says being employed without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to achieve, but he explained to the team he would never have engaged in that.

However, he says that those he encountered employed in unauthorized convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", particularly those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"They expended their entire money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited all they had."

Ali agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] state you're prohibited to work - but simultaneously [you]