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

Two Kurdish-background individuals agreed to go undercover to expose a organization behind unlawful High Street businesses because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both lived legally in the UK for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was operating small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout Britain, and aimed to learn more about how it functioned and who was taking part.

Equipped with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to work, looking to acquire and manage a convenience store from which to distribute contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how simple it is for an individual in these conditions to start and manage a enterprise on the main street in full view. Those participating, we learned, compensate Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also managed to covertly record one of those at the heart of the operation, who stated that he could remove official fines of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those employing unauthorized laborers.

"Personally aimed to play a role in exposing these unlawful activities [...] to declare that they do not represent Kurdish people," says Saman, a ex- refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a region that straddles the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his life was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that tensions over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and state they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify conflicts.

But Ali says that the illegal employment "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he believes obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist says he was worried the publication could be used by the far-right.

He says this especially impressed him when he noticed that radical right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Banners and flags could be observed at the rally, reading "we demand our country returned".

The reporters have both been observing online response to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and explain it has caused intense anger for certain individuals. One Facebook message they spotted said: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another urged their families in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen allegations that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no intention of damaging the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter explains. "Our goal is to expose those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly troubled about the activities of such persons."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are escaping political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first arrived to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to live on under £20 a per week while his refugee application was reviewed.

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

"Realistically saying, this is not enough to maintain a acceptable lifestyle," explains Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prevented from working, he believes many are open to being exploited and are practically "forced to work in the unofficial economy for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A representative for the government department commented: "The government make no apology for not granting refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would create an incentive for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can require a long time to be resolved with approximately a one-third requiring over one year, according to official statistics from the late March this current year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to accomplish, but he explained to the team he would not have participated in that.

However, he says that those he interviewed laboring in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals used their entire money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've lost their entire investment."

Ali concurs that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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