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

A pair of Kurdish individuals consented to go undercover to expose a network behind illegal High Street enterprises because the lawbreakers are causing harm the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish journalists who have both resided legally in the United Kingdom for years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was operating convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and sought to discover more about how it worked and who was involved.

Armed with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to be employed, seeking to acquire and operate a convenience store from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how straightforward it is for someone in these conditions to establish and operate a business on the High Street in full view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their names, helping to deceive the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also managed to discreetly film one of those at the centre of the operation, who asserted that he could erase government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those employing illegal workers.

"Personally wanted to participate in exposing these unlawful operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't characterize us," states one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman came to the United Kingdom illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his well-being was at threat.

The journalists recognize that tensions over unauthorized immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been concerned that the investigation could worsen tensions.

But Ali says that the illegal labor "damages the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he considers driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist mentions he was anxious the reporting could be seized upon by the far-right.

He explains this especially affected him when he realized that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was taking place in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Placards and flags could be seen at the gathering, reading "we want our country returned".

The reporters have both been monitoring social media reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and explain it has generated strong outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook message they found read: "How can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another called for their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also seen accusations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish community," one reporter explains. "Our objective is to reveal those who have compromised its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely concerned about the behavior of such people."

Most of those seeking refugee status say they are escaping political discrimination, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a charity that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, struggled for many years. He states he had to survive on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which offers meals, according to government regulations.

"Honestly saying, this is not sufficient to sustain a respectable lifestyle," says the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from working, he thinks many are susceptible to being exploited and are effectively "obligated to labor in the illegal market for as low as £3 per hour".

A representative for the government department said: "We make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the right to be employed - granting this would generate an motivation for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be decided with approximately a third taking over 12 months, according to government data from the spring this current year.

Saman says being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he told the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he interviewed employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his investigation seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"They expended their entire funds to come to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've sacrificed their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed in dire straits.

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