The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to expose a operation behind unlawful main street enterprises because the criminals are causing harm the standing of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for many years.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating convenience stores, hair salons and car washes across the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was participating.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to work, attempting to purchase and run a small shop from which to distribute unlawful cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to discover how simple it is for an individual in these conditions to set up and run a business on the High Street in public view. The individuals involved, we found, compensate Kurds who have UK residency to register the businesses in their identities, assisting to deceive the officials.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly document one of those at the core of the operation, who claimed that he could erase official penalties of up to £60k faced those employing illegal workers.

"I sought to participate in exposing these illegal activities [...] to say that they don't speak for our community," says Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his life was at danger.

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

But Ali states that the illegal labor "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he believes compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was worried the reporting could be exploited by the extreme right.

He says this especially affected him when he realized that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working covertly. Banners and flags could be observed at the protest, showing "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated intense anger for some. One social media message they observed said: "In what way can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

Another urged their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also encountered allegations that they were agents for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish community," one reporter states. "Our aim is to expose those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the actions of such persons."

The majority of those applying for refugee status state they are fleeing political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that helps asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the case for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which offers meals, according to government guidance.

"Realistically saying, this isn't adequate to sustain a respectable lifestyle," states the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are generally prevented from employment, he thinks numerous are vulnerable to being exploited and are essentially "forced to work in the black market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the government department said: "We are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the permission to work - doing so would create an incentive for individuals to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Refugee cases can take a long time to be resolved with nearly a third requiring more than one year, according to official statistics from the spring this current year.

The reporter explains being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he told us he would never have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he met employed in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals used their entire money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've lost all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

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