Why We Went Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish individuals consented to go undercover to reveal a organization behind illegal commercial businesses because the lawbreakers are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish crime network was managing convenience stores, barbershops and car washes throughout the UK, and wanted to discover more about how it worked and who was involved.

Equipped with covert cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to be employed, looking to buy and manage a small shop from which to distribute unlawful tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how simple it is for someone in these conditions to establish and manage a commercial operation on the main street in plain sight. Those involved, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the businesses in their identities, helping to mislead the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly film one of those at the centre of the operation, who asserted that he could remove official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those using illegal workers.

"Personally aimed to participate in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to declare that they don't represent Kurdish people," states one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant personally. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a area that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his safety was at risk.

The journalists admit that disagreements over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and say they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized working "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, Ali says he was anxious the reporting could be exploited by the extreme right.

He states this especially struck him when he noticed that extreme right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was operating undercover. Signs and banners could be seen at the protest, showing "we demand our country returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking online feedback to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has caused intense frustration for some. One Facebook message they observed said: "How can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

Another called for their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen accusations that they were spies for the British authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter says. "Our aim is to reveal those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and deeply concerned about the actions of such people."

The majority of those seeking asylum claim they are escaping political persecution, according to an expert from the a refugee support 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 arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for many years. He says he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which offers food, according to official policies.

"Honestly saying, this is not adequate to support a dignified lifestyle," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely prevented from working, he believes many are vulnerable to being manipulated and are effectively "forced to labor in the illegal market for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: "We do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the permission to work - doing so would generate an incentive for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can require years to be decided with approximately a third taking over a year, according to official figures from the late March this year.

The reporter states working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely straightforward to achieve, but he informed us he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he encountered laboring in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"They spent their entire savings to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've lost all they had."

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

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