The Reasons We Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Population

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to operate secretly to reveal a operation behind illegal main street enterprises because the wrongdoers are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish investigators who have both lived lawfully in the United Kingdom for years.

The team found that a Kurdish crime network was operating small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it worked and who was involved.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, looking to purchase and manage a convenience store from which to distribute unlawful cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to reveal how straightforward it is for an individual in these circumstances to set up and manage a commercial operation on the High Street in full view. The individuals participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the enterprises in their identities, enabling to deceive the officials.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly document one of those at the heart of the operation, who stated that he could remove official fines of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using illegal laborers.

"I wanted to participate in revealing these unlawful practices [...] to say that they do not characterize Kurdish people," says one reporter, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman came to the United Kingdom without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his life was at danger.

The reporters admit that tensions over unauthorized immigration are high in the UK and say they have both been worried that the inquiry could worsen hostilities.

But Ali says that the unauthorized labor "harms the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, Ali explains he was anxious the coverage could be seized upon by the radical right.

He states this especially struck him when he noticed that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was taking place in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and banners could be spotted at the protest, reading "we want our country back".

The reporters have both been monitoring social media response to the investigation from within the Kurdish population and explain it has sparked significant outrage for some. One Facebook message they spotted said: "In what way can we locate and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also read accusations that they were informants for the UK government, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish-origin population," Saman says. "Our goal is to expose those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly worried about the behavior of such people."

The majority of those applying for refugee status claim they are fleeing political oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He explains he had to survive on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now get about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which offers food, according to official guidance.

"Practically stating, this is not sufficient to sustain a respectable existence," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are largely prevented from employment, he feels numerous are open to being exploited and are essentially "obligated to labor in the black sector for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities stated: "The government make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the right to work - granting this would generate an reason for people to come to the UK illegally."

Refugee cases can take multiple years to be decided with approximately a one-third requiring over a year, according to official statistics from the end of March this current year.

The reporter states working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely simple to do, but he informed the team he would not have done that.

However, he states that those he met working in unauthorized mini-marts during his investigation seemed "lost", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals expended all their savings to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've lost their entire investment."

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

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