Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish-background men consented to work covertly to expose a organization behind unlawful main street businesses because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they explain.

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

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was running convenience stores, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was involved.

Equipped with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no authorization to work, attempting to purchase and manage a small shop from which to trade illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to discover how straightforward it is for a person in these situations to establish and run a commercial operation on the main street in public view. Those involved, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their identities, helping to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly document one of those at the core of the operation, who stated that he could eliminate government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those hiring illegal employees.

"I sought to contribute in revealing these unlawful operations [...] to declare that they do not characterize us," says Saman, a ex- refugee applicant personally. Saman came to the country illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his well-being was at danger.

The investigators recognize that tensions over unauthorized migration are high in the UK and say they have both been worried that the inquiry could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter states that the illegal employment "negatively affects the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

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

He explains this particularly struck him when he discovered that radical right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was working secretly. Signs and flags could be seen at the gathering, displaying "we demand our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has generated strong frustration for some. One Facebook message they found read: "How can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

A different called for their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen claims that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter says. "Our aim is to uncover those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely troubled about the behavior of such people."

Most of those seeking asylum claim they are escaping political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Practically speaking, this is not sufficient to support a acceptable lifestyle," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely prohibited from employment, he feels many are susceptible to being manipulated and are practically "forced to work in the unofficial economy for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities commented: "We make no apology for denying refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would create an incentive for people to come to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee cases can take multiple years to be resolved with approximately a third requiring over a year, according to government data from the end of March this year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite simple to achieve, but he explained to the team he would never have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he interviewed working in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "confused", especially those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals expended all of their money to migrate to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've lost everything."

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] say you're not allowed to be employed - but simultaneously [you]