The Reasons Our Team Went Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish individuals consented to work covertly to reveal a operation behind unlawful High Street businesses because the criminals are causing harm the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

The pair, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team discovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was running small shops, hair salons and car washes throughout the United Kingdom, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was participating.

Armed with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no right to be employed, looking to acquire and operate a small shop from which to distribute contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to discover how easy it is for an individual in these situations to establish and operate a business on the commercial area in plain sight. The individuals involved, we found, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the operations in their names, assisting to mislead the officials.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to secretly record one of those at the core of the network, who stated that he could eliminate official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring illegal laborers.

"Personally wanted to play a role in uncovering these unlawful practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for our community," explains one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman came to the country without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a territory that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at risk.

The reporters admit that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are high in the UK and say they have both been concerned that the investigation could intensify hostilities.

But Ali says that the illegal working "negatively affects the entire Kurdish community" and he considers driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Additionally, Ali mentions he was anxious the reporting could be used by the extreme right.

He explains this especially impressed him when he noticed that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating secretly. Placards and flags could be observed at the rally, showing "we demand our country returned".

The reporters have both been monitoring online reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has generated intense frustration for certain individuals. One social media comment they observed read: "How can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

Another urged their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also encountered accusations that they were spies for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter says. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and extremely troubled about the actions of such people."

Most of those seeking refugee status claim they are fleeing political persecution, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges 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 approximately £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which offers food, according to government policies.

"Realistically saying, this isn't enough to support a dignified existence," says the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prevented from working, he believes numerous are susceptible to being exploited and are essentially "obligated to work in the black market for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office stated: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant refugee applicants the right to be employed - doing so would establish an motivation for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee cases can require a long time to be resolved with approximately a 33% taking more than 12 months, according to official statistics from the end of March this year.

The reporter states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very straightforward to accomplish, but he explained to the team he would never have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he encountered laboring in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They expended all their money to come to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've forfeited all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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