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

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to go undercover to expose a network behind illegal commercial businesses because the lawbreakers are damaging the standing of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they explain.

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

The team uncovered that a Kurdish crime network was running small shops, hair salons and car washes the length of the United Kingdom, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Equipped with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to work, attempting to purchase and manage a convenience store from which to distribute contraband tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how easy it is for someone in these circumstances to establish and run a enterprise on the High Street in public view. Those participating, we learned, pay Kurds who have UK residency to register the enterprises in their names, enabling to mislead the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to discreetly document one of those at the core of the operation, who asserted that he could remove official sanctions of up to £60,000 faced those hiring unauthorized workers.

"Personally aimed to play a role in uncovering these illegal practices [...] to declare that they do not speak for Kurdish people," says one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter came to the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his life was at risk.

The journalists admit that conflicts over illegal immigration are elevated in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the probe could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the illegal employment "harms the whole Kurdish population" and he considers obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, the journalist says he was worried the publication could be used by the extreme right.

He explains this especially affected him when he discovered that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Banners and flags could be seen at the gathering, displaying "we want our country returned".

The reporters have both been tracking social media response to the investigation from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has caused significant frustration for certain individuals. One social media message they observed stated: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

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

They have also encountered claims that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish community," Saman explains. "Our goal is to uncover those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely concerned about the actions of such individuals."

Most of those applying for refugee status claim they are fleeing political discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that assists refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert journalist Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for years. He says he had to live on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now get approximately £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which includes meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't adequate to sustain a respectable life," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prohibited from employment, he feels numerous are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are essentially "obligated to labor in the unofficial market for as low as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office commented: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to work - doing so would establish an incentive for people to come to the UK without authorization."

Asylum cases can take a long time to be decided with almost a 33% taking more than a year, according to government statistics from the spring this current year.

Saman states being employed illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to accomplish, but he explained to the team he would not have done that.

However, he states that those he met laboring in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "confused", particularly those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all of their savings to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] state you're prohibited to work - but additionally [you]