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

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to go undercover to uncover a operation behind illegal main street businesses because the criminals are causing harm the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin investigators who have both lived lawfully in the United Kingdom for many years.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was operating convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across Britain, and sought to learn more about how it functioned and who was taking part.

Equipped with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to work, seeking to buy and manage a convenience store from which to trade contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to uncover how simple it is for an individual in these situations to establish and run a business on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we learned, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, helping to mislead the authorities.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to discreetly film one of those at the heart of the organization, who claimed that he could remove official fines of up to £60,000 imposed on those employing illegal workers.

"I sought to contribute in revealing these unlawful practices [...] to say that they don't characterize our community," says Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a area that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his life was at threat.

The reporters admit that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are high in the UK and explain they have both been anxious that the investigation could worsen tensions.

But Ali says that the unauthorized labor "harms the entire Kurdish community" and he believes obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Additionally, the journalist says he was concerned the publication could be used by the extreme right.

He says this especially affected him when he discovered that far-right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Signs and banners could be observed at the rally, displaying "we want our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking social media feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated intense frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook message they observed read: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

A different urged their families in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also seen claims that they were agents for the British authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to expose those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly concerned about the behavior of such persons."

The majority of those applying for refugee status claim they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He explains he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now get approximately £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which provides meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Practically speaking, this isn't adequate to sustain a respectable life," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are largely prevented from working, he believes a significant number are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are effectively "obligated to labor in the unofficial sector for as little as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: "The government are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the authorization to work - granting this would create an reason for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can require years to be processed with almost a 33% requiring over one year, according to official statistics from the end of March this current year.

The reporter states being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite simple to do, but he explained to the team he would never have done that.

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

"These individuals spent their entire savings to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've lost their entire investment."

Ali agrees that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

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