The Reasons Our Team Went Undercover to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish-background men consented to operate secretly to reveal a operation behind unlawful main street establishments because the lawbreakers are damaging the reputation of Kurds in the Britain, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided lawfully in the UK for many years.

Investigators found that a Kurdish criminal operation was running small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout Britain, and wanted to find out more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to acquire and operate a small shop from which to distribute unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were able to reveal how simple it is for a person in these circumstances to start and run a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. Those participating, we found, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their identities, assisting to fool the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly record one of those at the centre of the organization, who stated that he could remove official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using illegal employees.

"Personally sought to contribute in revealing these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not characterize Kurdish people," says one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant himself. The reporter entered the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his well-being was at danger.

The investigators acknowledge that conflicts over illegal migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But Ali explains that the illegal labor "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he believes driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist says he was worried the coverage could be used by the extreme right.

He states this notably impressed him when he discovered that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating secretly. Banners and flags could be spotted at the rally, showing "we demand our country returned".

The reporters have both been tracking social media feedback to the investigation from inside the Kurdish-origin population and report it has sparked strong outrage for some. One social media post they spotted said: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

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

They have also encountered allegations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to reveal those who have damaged its reputation. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely troubled about the behavior of such people."

The majority of those seeking refugee status claim they are escaping political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that assists refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the case for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He states he had to live on less than twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which offers food, according to Home Office guidance.

"Honestly stating, this isn't sufficient to maintain a acceptable life," says the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are largely restricted from employment, he thinks numerous are open to being manipulated and are essentially "compelled to work in the illegal economy for as low as three pounds per hour".

A official for the authorities stated: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the permission to work - granting this would create an reason for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can take years to be decided with almost a one-third requiring over one year, according to official statistics from the late March this current year.

Saman explains working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite easy to achieve, but he informed us he would never have participated in that.

However, he states that those he interviewed employed in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals used all their savings to travel to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've forfeited everything."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed desperate.

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