The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Expose Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish individuals decided to go undercover to reveal a operation behind illegal High Street enterprises because the criminals are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the Britain, they explain.

The two, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish investigators who have both lived legally in the UK for years.

The team discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing convenience stores, hair salons and car washes across the United Kingdom, and aimed to learn more about how it functioned and who was involved.

Prepared with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to be employed, looking to purchase and operate a mini-mart from which to trade unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to uncover how simple it is for someone in these situations to start and manage a commercial operation on the commercial area in plain sight. The individuals participating, we found, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their names, assisting to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly record one of those at the centre of the operation, who stated that he could erase official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring illegal employees.

"Personally wanted to contribute in revealing these unlawful operations [...] to say that they do not characterize our community," says one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the country without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his life was at risk.

The investigators recognize that tensions over unauthorized immigration are high in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame tensions.

But Ali says that the unauthorized working "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, Ali says he was concerned the publication could be exploited by the extreme right.

He says this particularly affected him when he realized that radical right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Signs and banners could be seen at the gathering, displaying "we want our country returned".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin community and explain it has caused strong frustration for certain individuals. One social media message they found said: "In what way can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

One more called for their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen claims that they were agents for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman says. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and extremely concerned about the activities of such people."

The majority of those applying for refugee status say they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a organization that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

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

Refugee applicants now get about forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to government policies.

"Honestly saying, this is not adequate to maintain a acceptable existence," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from employment, he feels numerous are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to work in the illegal market for as low as three pounds per hour".

A official for the authorities stated: "The government are unapologetic for refusing to grant asylum seekers the right to be employed - doing so would establish an incentive for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can take a long time to be resolved with almost a one-third taking over a year, according to government data from the spring this year.

The reporter says working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very simple to do, but he informed the team he would never have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he met employed in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "confused", especially those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals spent their entire money to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited all they had."

Ali concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

"If [they] say you're prohibited to work - but additionally [you]