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

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to go undercover to uncover a organization behind unlawful commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they say.

The two, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided legally in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish crime network was managing convenience stores, barbershops and car washes throughout Britain, and aimed to find out more about how it worked and who was involved.

Armed with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no right to be employed, looking to buy and run a mini-mart from which to trade illegal cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to discover how straightforward it is for an individual in these situations to set up and manage a enterprise on the main street in public view. The individuals participating, we learned, compensate Kurds who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, enabling to mislead the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also were able to secretly record one of those at the core of the organization, who stated that he could erase government penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring illegal workers.

"I aimed to play a role in exposing these unlawful activities [...] to declare that they do not represent our community," states one reporter, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his well-being was at risk.

The reporters admit that tensions over illegal migration are high in the UK and say they have both been worried that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal employment "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, Ali says he was concerned the publication could be exploited by the radical right.

He says this notably affected him when he realized that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Placards and banners could be seen at the rally, reading "we want our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media feedback to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and say it has generated strong frustration for some. One Facebook message they found said: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

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

They have also read allegations that they were spies for the British government, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish population," Saman states. "Our aim is to expose those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and extremely troubled about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those seeking asylum say they are escaping political persecution, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to survive on under £20 a week while his refugee application was processed.

Refugee applicants now get about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to government policies.

"Honestly speaking, this isn't adequate to maintain a dignified lifestyle," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely prohibited from working, he thinks numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are essentially "compelled to labor in the illegal market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department commented: "We are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - doing so would create an motivation for people to travel to the UK illegally."

Asylum cases can require years to be processed with nearly a third taking over one year, according to government figures from the late March this current year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been quite easy to do, but he told us he would never have done that.

However, he says that those he interviewed working in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals used all their money to travel to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've lost everything."

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

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