The Reasons We Went Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men consented to work covertly to uncover a organization behind illegal High Street establishments because the lawbreakers are damaging the image of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish reporters who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for years.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was running small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and sought to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Equipped with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to work, seeking to purchase and manage a small shop from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to reveal how simple it is for someone in these conditions to set up and operate a enterprise on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, helping to deceive the officials.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly film one of those at the heart of the network, who asserted that he could erase official fines of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring unauthorized workers.

"Personally aimed to play a role in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to declare that they do not speak for Kurdish people," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman came to the country illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a region that straddles the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his life was at danger.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over illegal immigration are elevated in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the inquiry could worsen tensions.

But Ali explains that the illegal employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Additionally, the journalist mentions he was concerned the reporting could be exploited by the radical right.

He states this especially struck him when he noticed that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Signs and flags could be seen at the protest, reading "we demand our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish population and say it has generated significant frustration for some. One social media post they observed said: "In what way can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another demanded their relatives in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also seen allegations that they were informants for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish community," Saman explains. "Our objective is to expose those who have compromised its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply worried about the actions of such people."

Most of those applying for refugee status claim they are fleeing political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that supports asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he initially came to the UK, experienced challenges for years. He states he had to survive on under twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to government regulations.

"Honestly speaking, this is not sufficient to support a respectable existence," explains Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prohibited from employment, he thinks numerous are open to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the black sector for as low as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "We are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - doing so would generate an reason for people to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can require multiple years to be processed with almost a third requiring more than a year, according to official statistics from the late March this year.

Saman says working illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to accomplish, but he told the team he would never have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he met employed in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals expended all of their money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've sacrificed all they had."

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

"When [they] say you're forbidden to be employed - but additionally [you]