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

Two Kurdish-background men consented to go undercover to reveal a network behind unlawful commercial establishments because the wrongdoers are damaging the image of Kurds in the Britain, they explain.

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

The team discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating mini-marts, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services across Britain, and aimed to find out more about how it worked and who was participating.

Armed with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to work, looking to buy and operate a small shop from which to distribute contraband cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to uncover how easy it is for an individual in these conditions to establish and operate a business on the commercial area in public view. The individuals participating, we found, compensate Kurds who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, enabling to deceive the authorities.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly film one of those at the centre of the organization, who stated that he could erase official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those employing unauthorized laborers.

"I wanted to contribute in revealing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't represent Kurdish people," says one reporter, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter came to the country illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his safety was at danger.

The reporters acknowledge that conflicts over unauthorized migration are significant in the UK and state they have both been anxious that the inquiry could inflame hostilities.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized employment "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was worried the publication could be used by the radical right.

He says this notably struck him when he discovered that extreme right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Signs and flags could be seen at the rally, reading "we want our country returned".

The reporters have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish community and report it has generated significant outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook message they spotted said: "In what way can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

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

They have also read claims that they were informants for the British government, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish-origin population," Saman states. "Our objective is to expose those who have damaged its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly worried about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status state they are fleeing politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the case for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he first came to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He says he had to survive on under twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now get about £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which provides food, according to government regulations.

"Practically saying, this isn't adequate to sustain a acceptable lifestyle," says the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are largely prohibited from working, he thinks numerous are open to being taken advantage of and are essentially "compelled to labor in the unofficial economy for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department commented: "We make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the right to work - doing so would create an incentive for people to come to the UK illegally."

Refugee applications can take multiple years to be processed with almost a third requiring over 12 months, according to official statistics from the spring this current year.

Saman explains working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been very straightforward to do, but he told us he would not have done that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he interviewed laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "lost", particularly those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all their savings to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed everything."

Ali concurs that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] state you're not allowed to be employed - but additionally [you]