The Reasons Our Team Went Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish individuals agreed to go undercover to uncover a network behind unlawful main street businesses because the criminals are damaging the standing of Kurds in the UK, they state.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was managing mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and aimed to discover more about how it operated and who was involved.

Equipped with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no authorization to work, attempting to purchase and run a mini-mart from which to sell contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to reveal how straightforward it is for someone in these situations to start and run a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. The individuals participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the operations in their identities, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly film one of those at the heart of the organization, who stated that he could erase official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using unauthorized employees.

"I sought to play a role in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to say that they do not speak for our community," explains Saman, a ex- refugee applicant himself. Saman entered the country without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his safety was at risk.

The journalists acknowledge that conflicts over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could inflame conflicts.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized employment "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he feels driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist explains he was concerned the reporting could be used by the far-right.

He states this particularly affected him when he discovered that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity rally was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working covertly. Signs and flags could be observed at the protest, displaying "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking social media feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin community and report it has generated significant outrage for some. One Facebook post they spotted stated: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also read claims that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish community," one reporter explains. "Our aim is to expose those who have damaged its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly worried about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status claim they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil 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 reporter one investigator, who, when he initially came to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to live on under £20 a per week while his refugee application was processed.

Refugee applicants now get approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which includes meals, according to official policies.

"Honestly saying, this isn't adequate to sustain a respectable lifestyle," explains Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from working, he thinks a significant number are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are effectively "forced to work in the illegal sector for as low as £3 per hour".

A official for the Home Office commented: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant refugee applicants the permission to be employed - granting this would generate an reason for individuals to travel to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can require multiple years to be resolved with nearly a one-third requiring more than one year, according to government statistics from the spring this current year.

The reporter explains being employed without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have done that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he interviewed employed in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "confused", especially those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals spent their entire funds to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application refused and now they've sacrificed everything."

Ali agrees that these people seemed in dire straits.

"If [they] declare you're forbidden to be employed - but also [you]