Why Our Team Went Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to uncover a organization behind illegal High Street enterprises because the criminals are damaging the standing of Kurds in the Britain, they say.

The pair, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish journalists who have both resided legally in the UK for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish crime network was running convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and aimed to find out more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Equipped with hidden cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to work, looking to purchase and run a convenience store from which to distribute illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how straightforward it is for an individual in these circumstances to establish and manage a enterprise on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we discovered, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, enabling to fool the officials.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to secretly document one of those at the core of the operation, who asserted that he could eliminate government sanctions of up to £60k faced those using illegal employees.

"Personally sought to contribute in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to declare that they don't characterize us," explains one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant personally. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a region that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at risk.

The investigators admit that conflicts over illegal migration are significant in the United Kingdom and state they have both been concerned that the investigation could intensify tensions.

But Ali says that the illegal labor "damages the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he feels compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, Ali says he was worried the reporting could be exploited by the far-right.

He explains this particularly impressed him when he realized that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was taking place in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating secretly. Banners and banners could be seen at the rally, displaying "we demand our country returned".

Both journalists have both been observing social media reaction to the investigation from inside the Kurdish community and report it has sparked intense frustration for some. One social media message they found said: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another demanded their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also read allegations that they were informants for the British government, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman explains. "Our objective is to uncover those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish identity and profoundly troubled about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those applying for refugee status state they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He says he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now receive about forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which provides meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Practically saying, this isn't enough to maintain a respectable existence," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are largely prohibited from working, he feels many are open to being exploited and are effectively "compelled to labor in the unofficial market for as little as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the government department said: "We are unapologetic for denying asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - granting this would establish an incentive for people to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee applications can require multiple years to be processed with nearly a 33% taking over one year, according to government data from the end of March this current year.

Saman explains working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or convenience store would have been extremely easy to do, but he explained to the team he would never have done that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he met working in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"They expended all of their money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed in dire straits.

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