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

A pair of Kurdish-background men agreed to work covertly to expose a network behind illegal High Street establishments because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the image of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

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

The team found that a Kurdish crime network was running small shops, hair salons and car washes throughout the UK, and sought to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, attempting to buy and manage a mini-mart from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to reveal how simple it is for someone in these circumstances to start and operate a business on the commercial area in plain sight. The individuals participating, we discovered, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, assisting to fool the officials.

Ali and Saman also were able to secretly record one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could remove government sanctions of up to £60,000 faced those hiring unauthorized workers.

"Personally wanted to contribute in exposing these unlawful operations [...] to declare that they don't represent Kurdish people," explains Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that covers the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his well-being was at danger.

The journalists acknowledge that disagreements over illegal immigration are significant in the UK and explain they have both been worried that the inquiry could inflame tensions.

But Ali states that the illegal working "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he believes compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was anxious the reporting could be exploited by the far-right.

He says this particularly affected him when he noticed that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was working secretly. Banners and flags could be spotted at the gathering, displaying "we demand our country returned".

The reporters have both been tracking social media feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish community and say it has caused intense outrage for certain individuals. One social media message they observed stated: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

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

They have also encountered accusations that they were spies for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish population," Saman says. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its standing. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and extremely troubled about the activities of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status say they are fleeing political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that assists asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for many years. He explains he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides food, according to Home Office guidance.

"Honestly saying, this isn't sufficient to support a respectable existence," explains Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally restricted from employment, he thinks numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are effectively "compelled to labor in the unofficial market for as low as three pounds per hour".

A official for the Home Office commented: "The government make no apology for denying refugee applicants the permission to work - granting this would establish an motivation for individuals to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can require years to be resolved with approximately a third requiring more than a year, according to official statistics from the spring this year.

The reporter says working illegally in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite simple to accomplish, but he informed the team he would not have engaged in that.

However, he states that those he encountered working in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"They used all their savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've lost everything."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] declare you're prohibited to be employed - but additionally [you]