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

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to work covertly to uncover a operation behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are damaging the standing of Kurds in the UK, they state.

The two, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish investigators who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team discovered that a Kurdish crime network was managing small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout the United Kingdom, and sought to discover more about how it worked and who was involved.

Prepared with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to work, seeking to purchase and run a small shop from which to trade unlawful cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how easy it is for someone in these conditions to start and operate a business on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the operations in their names, enabling to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also managed to covertly film one of those at the heart of the organization, who claimed that he could remove official sanctions of up to £60,000 imposed on those using illegal workers.

"Personally wanted to contribute in revealing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't represent Kurdish people," states one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a country - because his well-being was at danger.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized immigration are significant in the UK and explain they have both been concerned that the probe could intensify tensions.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was anxious the publication could be seized upon by the radical right.

He states this notably affected him when he realized that far-right activist a prominent activist's national unity protest was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Signs and banners could be observed at the gathering, showing "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking online feedback to the exposé from inside the Kurdish population and explain it has sparked intense frustration for certain individuals. One social media post they spotted read: "How can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

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

They have also seen claims that they were agents for the British government, and traitors to other Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman states. "Our objective is to expose those who have compromised its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and extremely worried about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those applying for refugee status state they are escaping political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the case for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He explains he had to survive on less than £20 a week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now are provided about forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which provides food, according to official policies.

"Realistically saying, this isn't enough to maintain a acceptable existence," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from employment, he believes numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are practically "forced to labor in the unofficial sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the Home Office commented: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the right to be employed - doing so would establish an motivation for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee applications can take multiple years to be decided with almost a one-third taking more than 12 months, according to government figures from the end of March this current year.

Saman says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or convenience store would have been extremely straightforward to accomplish, but he told us he would never have engaged in that.

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

"They expended all their savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] state you're forbidden to work - but additionally [you]