Why We Went Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish individuals decided to go undercover to uncover a network behind illegal main street enterprises because the lawbreakers are causing harm the reputation of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish journalists who have both resided legally in the UK for many years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was running convenience stores, barbershops and car washes throughout the UK, and sought to find out more about how it worked and who was involved.

Armed with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no permission to work, attempting to acquire and manage a convenience store from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to discover how simple it is for an individual in these circumstances to establish and manage a business on the commercial area in full view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurds who have UK residency to register the businesses in their names, enabling to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly record one of those at the core of the operation, who asserted that he could remove official penalties of up to £60,000 faced those hiring unauthorized workers.

"Personally sought to contribute in revealing these illegal operations [...] to say that they don't speak for our community," explains one reporter, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the country without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his safety was at risk.

The reporters acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized migration are significant in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify tensions.

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

Furthermore, the journalist says he was anxious the publication could be exploited by the far-right.

He states this especially struck him when he discovered that radical right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating undercover. Signs and flags could be spotted at the gathering, displaying "we demand our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been observing social media reaction to the exposé from within the Kurdish-origin population and report it has generated intense outrage for some. One social media message they spotted stated: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

One more demanded their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also seen claims that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman states. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its image. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and deeply concerned about the actions of such people."

Most of those seeking asylum claim they are fleeing politically motivated persecution, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a organization that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the case for our covert journalist Saman, who, when he first came to the UK, experienced challenges for years. He states he had to live on less than twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now get about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides food, according to Home Office guidance.

"Practically speaking, this isn't sufficient to sustain a respectable lifestyle," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from employment, he thinks many are open to being manipulated and are effectively "compelled to labor in the black sector for as low as three pounds per hour".

A official for the Home Office commented: "We do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the permission to work - granting this would create an motivation for individuals to come to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee applications can require a long time to be decided with approximately a one-third taking more than a year, according to government data from the end of March this current year.

The reporter explains working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have engaged in that.

However, he says that those he interviewed working in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals expended their entire savings to migrate to the UK, they had their asylum rejected and now they've lost everything."

The other reporter concurs that these individuals seemed desperate.

"When [they] say you're prohibited to be employed - but simultaneously [you]