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

A pair of Kurdish-background men consented to work covertly to reveal a organization behind unlawful commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they say.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish investigators who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team found that a Kurdish criminal operation was managing small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and sought to find out more about how it worked and who was participating.

Prepared with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to be employed, attempting to acquire and manage a mini-mart from which to trade illegal tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to discover how straightforward it is for someone in these situations to start and operate a commercial operation on the main street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we found, pay Kurds who have UK residency to register the businesses in their identities, assisting to mislead the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also were able to covertly document one of those at the heart of the organization, who claimed that he could erase government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those employing unauthorized laborers.

"I wanted to participate in exposing these unlawful activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't speak for Kurdish people," explains one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a region that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his well-being was at danger.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized migration are significant in the United Kingdom and say they have both been concerned that the investigation could worsen conflicts.

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

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

He says this particularly affected him when he discovered that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom march was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was working secretly. Banners and banners could be seen at the rally, showing "we demand our country returned".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking online feedback to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and report it has caused significant outrage for some. One social media message they observed stated: "In what way can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

A different urged their relatives in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also encountered accusations that they were spies for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter explains. "Our aim is to expose those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly troubled about the activities of such people."

The majority of those seeking refugee status claim they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a charity that helps asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for many years. He says he had to live on less than twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was processed.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to government regulations.

"Practically speaking, this isn't enough to support a dignified life," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from working, he thinks many are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are essentially "obligated to work in the black market for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office said: "We do not apologize for not granting refugee applicants the right to work - granting this would generate an incentive for people to come to the UK without authorization."

Refugee applications can require years to be resolved with almost a one-third requiring over a year, according to government statistics from the late March this current year.

The reporter explains working without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been quite easy to achieve, but he explained to the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed working in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "confused", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals spent their entire money to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've lost everything."

Ali concurs that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] state you're prohibited to work - but simultaneously [you]