The Reasons We Went Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to reveal a network behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they say.

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

The team found that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was running small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services throughout the UK, and wanted to learn more about how it operated and who was involved.

Equipped with covert cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to work, seeking to purchase and manage a small shop from which to sell illegal tobacco products and vapes.

They were successful to reveal how easy it is for a person in these conditions to set up and operate a business on the commercial area in plain sight. The individuals involved, we found, compensate Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, helping to mislead the officials.

Ali and Saman also were able to covertly record one of those at the core of the operation, who claimed that he could erase government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those using illegal laborers.

"Personally sought to participate in revealing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't speak for our community," explains Saman, a former refugee applicant himself. Saman entered the country without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that straddles the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his life was at risk.

The reporters recognize that disagreements over unauthorized migration are significant in the UK and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he believes compelled to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was anxious the coverage could be exploited by the extreme right.

He explains this especially impressed him when he discovered that extreme right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working secretly. Banners and flags could be observed at the gathering, displaying "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been observing social media reaction to the investigation from inside the Kurdish community and explain it has sparked intense outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook post they found said: "How can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

A different demanded their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen accusations that they were agents for the UK government, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter states. "Our goal is to reveal those who have harmed its image. We are proud of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly concerned about the actions of such individuals."

Most of those seeking asylum say they are fleeing political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that supports asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the case for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He states he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes food, according to Home Office policies.

"Honestly saying, this isn't enough to support a dignified existence," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are largely prevented from employment, he believes many are vulnerable to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the unofficial economy for as low as three pounds per hour".

A official for the Home Office stated: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - doing so would generate an motivation for individuals to migrate to the UK illegally."

Refugee applications can require multiple years to be resolved with approximately a 33% requiring more than one year, according to official data from the end of March this year.

The reporter says being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or convenience store would have been very easy to achieve, but he told the team he would never have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he met working in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They spent all of their savings to come to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've lost everything."

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

"When [they] declare you're not allowed to be employed - but also [you]