The Reasons Our Team Went Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men agreed to go undercover to uncover a operation behind illegal High Street enterprises because the lawbreakers are damaging the standing of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was managing mini-marts, hair salons and car washes across Britain, and sought to find out more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, looking to purchase and manage a small shop from which to distribute unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to uncover how easy it is for a person in these situations to establish and operate a enterprise on the commercial area in plain sight. Those participating, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, assisting to mislead the authorities.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to secretly film one of those at the heart of the organization, who asserted that he could erase official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using illegal employees.

"Personally wanted to play a role in uncovering these unlawful practices [...] to declare that they don't characterize us," states one reporter, a former refugee applicant himself. Saman entered the country without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his safety was at risk.

The journalists admit that tensions over unauthorized migration are high in the UK and say they have both been anxious that the probe could intensify hostilities.

But Ali states that the illegal labor "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he believes compelled to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

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

He explains this particularly struck him when he noticed that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity rally was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Placards and flags could be seen at the rally, showing "we demand our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media response to the exposé from within the Kurdish-origin community and say it has caused significant anger for certain individuals. One Facebook message they found stated: "In what way can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

A different urged their families in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also read claims that they were spies for the UK authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter states. "Our goal is to uncover those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the behavior of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum say they are escaping political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first arrived to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to survive on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now receive about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides food, according to Home Office regulations.

"Practically stating, this isn't sufficient to sustain a respectable life," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely prohibited from employment, he thinks a significant number are vulnerable to being exploited and are practically "obligated to labor in the unofficial sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the Home Office stated: "We make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the authorization to work - doing so would generate an motivation for people to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can take years to be processed with approximately a third requiring more than one year, according to government data from the end of March this current year.

Saman explains being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely simple to do, but he explained to us he would not have engaged in that.

However, he states that those he met working in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "lost", notably those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"They expended their entire savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited everything."

The other reporter acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

"When [they] declare you're not allowed to be employed - but additionally [you]