The Reasons We Went Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background men decided to go undercover to uncover a network behind unlawful main street businesses because the wrongdoers are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was running small shops, hair salons and car washes across the UK, and sought to discover more about how it worked and who was involved.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, seeking to acquire and manage a small shop from which to distribute contraband tobacco products and vapes.

They were successful to reveal how straightforward it is for a person in these situations to start and manage a commercial operation on the commercial area in full view. The individuals involved, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, enabling to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to secretly document one of those at the heart of the network, who asserted that he could erase government fines of up to £60,000 faced those employing unauthorized employees.

"I wanted to participate in exposing these unlawful operations [...] to declare that they don't represent Kurdish people," states Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman came to the country without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a region that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his safety was at threat.

The journalists recognize that tensions over illegal migration are high in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify tensions.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he believes compelled to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was anxious the reporting could be exploited by the far-right.

He states this particularly impressed him when he discovered that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity protest was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Placards and banners could be seen at the gathering, reading "we demand our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media response to the investigation from within the Kurdish population and say it has caused significant outrage for certain individuals. One social media message they found read: "How can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

One more demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also seen allegations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish community," Saman states. "Our objective is to uncover those who have damaged its image. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and extremely concerned about the behavior of such individuals."

The majority of those applying for asylum say they are fleeing political persecution, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the scenario for our covert journalist Saman, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He states he had to survive on less than £20 a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided approximately £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which offers meals, according to official policies.

"Honestly saying, this is not adequate to maintain a dignified existence," says the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from employment, he thinks a significant number are open to being exploited and are practically "obligated to labor in the illegal market for as little as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "The government make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - granting this would establish an reason for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum cases can take multiple years to be decided with approximately a one-third requiring over one year, according to official data from the spring this year.

Saman states working illegally in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been very simple to achieve, but he told us he would not have engaged in that.

However, he states that those he encountered laboring in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "confused", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals expended all of their savings to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited everything."

The other reporter acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

"If [they] declare you're prohibited to be employed - but additionally [you]