The Reasons Our Team Went Covert to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background men agreed to operate secretly to uncover a network behind unlawful commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are causing harm the image of Kurds in the Britain, they say.

The two, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish reporters who have both lived legally in the United Kingdom for many years.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was managing small shops, hair salons and car washes across Britain, and aimed to find out more about how it operated and who was involved.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to be employed, seeking to acquire and operate a mini-mart from which to trade contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how simple it is for a person in these circumstances to start and manage a enterprise on the commercial area in plain sight. Those involved, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, assisting to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to covertly film one of those at the core of the network, who claimed that he could remove official sanctions of up to £60,000 encountered those employing illegal employees.

"Personally sought to contribute in revealing these unlawful operations [...] to say that they don't characterize us," says Saman, a former asylum seeker personally. Saman came to the country illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his well-being was at threat.

The reporters acknowledge that disagreements over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been concerned that the probe could worsen conflicts.

But Ali explains that the illegal working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Additionally, the journalist mentions he was worried the publication could be used by the radical right.

He says this notably affected him when he noticed that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Placards and banners could be spotted at the gathering, showing "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish community and say it has generated significant frustration for certain individuals. One social media message they spotted said: "How can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another demanded their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read allegations that they were informants for the UK government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our goal is to reveal those who have compromised its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the behavior of such persons."

Most of those seeking refugee status state they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our undercover journalist Saman, who, when he first came to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to survive on under twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which provides food, according to Home Office regulations.

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

Because asylum seekers are mostly prohibited from working, he feels numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are effectively "compelled to labor in the black sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A representative for the Home Office commented: "We make no apology for denying refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would generate an reason for people to come to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be resolved with nearly a 33% requiring over a year, according to official statistics from the spring this year.

Saman says working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or convenience store would have been very straightforward to accomplish, but he explained to us he would not have participated in that.

However, he explains that those he interviewed working in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"They used all their savings to migrate to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] state you're forbidden to be employed - but simultaneously [you]