The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish individuals consented to work covertly to reveal a operation behind unlawful commercial establishments because the criminals are damaging the standing of Kurds in the UK, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided legally in the UK for years.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was operating small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across Britain, and wanted to discover more about how it functioned and who was taking part.

Armed with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to acquire and operate a mini-mart from which to distribute unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to uncover how easy it is for an individual in these situations to establish and operate a enterprise on the High Street in full view. The individuals participating, we discovered, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their names, enabling to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also were able to discreetly film one of those at the centre of the network, who asserted that he could eliminate government penalties of up to £60,000 imposed on those hiring illegal laborers.

"I aimed to participate in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not represent us," explains one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter entered the country illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his well-being was at threat.

The investigators admit that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are high in the UK and state they have both been anxious that the investigation could inflame conflicts.

But the other reporter says that the illegal labor "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, Ali explains he was worried the publication could be used by the far-right.

He explains this notably affected him when he noticed that far-right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Banners and flags could be observed at the rally, reading "we demand our nation back".

The reporters have both been tracking social media reaction to the exposé from inside the Kurdish population and report it has generated intense outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook message they observed stated: "How can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

One more urged their families in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen allegations that they were informants for the UK authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish population," Saman explains. "Our goal is to reveal those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and extremely troubled about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those seeking asylum claim they are fleeing political oppression, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, struggled for many years. He explains he had to survive on under £20 a week while his refugee application was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides meals, according to official guidance.

"Realistically stating, this isn't enough to support a dignified existence," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from working, he thinks many are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "forced to labor in the illegal economy for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A official for the government department stated: "We do not apologize for not granting refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would generate an reason for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can take multiple years to be resolved with approximately a 33% taking over a year, according to government data from the spring this year.

Saman says working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been very straightforward to accomplish, but he explained to us he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he met laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"They spent all their funds to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited all they had."

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] state you're forbidden to be employed - but simultaneously [you]