The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish individuals agreed to go undercover to uncover a network behind illegal main street enterprises because the criminals are damaging the reputation of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they explain.

The pair, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided legally in the United Kingdom for years.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked crime network was managing mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of the United Kingdom, and aimed to discover more about how it operated and who was participating.

Equipped with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no authorization to work, looking to acquire and operate a mini-mart from which to trade unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to reveal how easy it is for a person in these circumstances to start and manage a commercial operation on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we discovered, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, assisting to fool the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to discreetly document one of those at the centre of the operation, who claimed that he could erase government sanctions of up to £60,000 faced those using illegal employees.

"Personally aimed to contribute in exposing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't speak for Kurdish people," says Saman, a ex- refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered 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 country - because his safety was at risk.

The reporters recognize that conflicts over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and state they have both been worried that the inquiry could intensify hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized labor "harms the entire Kurdish community" and he considers obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Additionally, the journalist mentions he was anxious the reporting could be seized upon by the radical right.

He says this particularly affected him when he realized that radical right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was taking place in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and banners could be observed at the rally, showing "we demand our country returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring online response to the exposé from within the Kurdish population and explain it has caused strong frustration for some. One Facebook message they spotted said: "How 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 harmed.

They have also encountered allegations that they were informants for the UK authorities, and betrayers to other Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish population," Saman states. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely concerned about the activities of such people."

The majority of those applying for asylum state they are escaping politically motivated persecution, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He states he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now get approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which offers meals, according to official guidance.

"Practically speaking, this isn't sufficient to maintain a dignified life," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely prevented from working, he thinks a significant number are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "obligated to labor in the unofficial sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office said: "We make no apology for denying refugee applicants the permission to be employed - granting this would establish an incentive for individuals to come to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can require years to be decided with approximately a 33% taking more than a year, according to government data from the end of March this current year.

The reporter states working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been very straightforward to do, but he explained to us he would never have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he met employed in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "disoriented", notably those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

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

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed hopeless.

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