Why Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals consented to operate secretly to uncover a organization behind unlawful main street enterprises because the wrongdoers are causing harm the image of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they say.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both lived legally in the UK for a long time.

The team found that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was running small shops, barbershops and car washes the length of the UK, and sought to learn more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with secret cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to work, seeking to buy and operate a convenience store from which to distribute contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to discover how easy it is for someone in these conditions to start and run a commercial operation on the commercial area in public view. The individuals involved, we discovered, compensate Kurds who have UK residency to register the operations in their names, assisting to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also managed to discreetly document one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could remove official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those employing illegal employees.

"Personally wanted to contribute in uncovering these unlawful activities [...] to say that they don't speak for our community," says one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his life was at risk.

The investigators acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized immigration are elevated in the UK and state they have both been worried that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But Ali states that the unauthorized labor "negatively affects the entire Kurdish community" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was worried the reporting could be used by the far-right.

He explains this especially impressed him when he discovered that radical right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was taking place in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working covertly. Signs and banners could be observed at the protest, showing "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish community and say it has caused intense anger for some. One social media post they found said: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

One more called for their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read claims that they were informants for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman explains. "Our goal is to reveal those who have damaged its image. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and profoundly worried about the actions of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are fleeing politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he first came to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He explains he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now receive about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which offers meals, according to Home Office policies.

"Honestly speaking, this isn't adequate to sustain a respectable life," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from employment, he feels numerous are susceptible to being exploited and are essentially "obligated to work in the black economy for as little as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the authorities stated: "We make no apology for not granting refugee applicants the right to be employed - doing so would generate an incentive for people to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can require a long time to be decided with approximately a one-third taking more than a year, according to government figures from the spring this year.

The reporter explains working without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been extremely simple to achieve, but he explained to the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he interviewed employed in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", particularly those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"They spent their entire funds to migrate to the UK, they had their refugee application refused and now they've lost their entire investment."

The other reporter acknowledges that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] say you're not allowed to be employed - but simultaneously [you]