Why We Chose to Go Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to uncover a organization behind illegal High Street businesses because the criminals are causing harm the image of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin investigators who have both lived legally in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was operating mini-marts, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of the United Kingdom, and wanted to find out more about how it worked and who was taking part.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to work, seeking to buy and run a small shop from which to sell illegal cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were successful to discover how simple it is for someone in these circumstances to start and run a business on the High Street in public view. The individuals participating, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the businesses in their identities, helping to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly film one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could eliminate government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring illegal laborers.

"I sought to participate in uncovering these unlawful operations [...] to say that they do not characterize our community," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the country without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that covers the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his life was at danger.

The reporters recognize that conflicts over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the probe could inflame hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist says he was worried the publication could be used by the radical right.

He states this especially affected him when he noticed that extreme right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Banners and flags could be observed at the rally, displaying "we want our country back".

Both journalists have both been observing social media feedback to the investigation from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated strong outrage for some. One Facebook message they found read: "In what way can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

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

They have also encountered accusations that they were agents for the British authorities, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish-origin community," Saman states. "Our aim is to reveal those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply troubled about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status say they are fleeing politically motivated persecution, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a organization that assists refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He explains he had to live on less than twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now get approximately £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes food, according to government policies.

"Realistically stating, this is not adequate to support a respectable existence," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are generally restricted from working, he thinks many are open to being taken advantage of and are effectively "forced to work in the black sector for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities commented: "We do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the permission to be employed - doing so would create an incentive for individuals to travel to the UK illegally."

Asylum cases can require multiple years to be processed with approximately a 33% requiring more than one year, according to official data from the spring this year.

Saman says working illegally in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been very easy to achieve, but he explained to us he would not have participated in that.

However, he says that those he encountered laboring in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

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

Ali agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"When [they] say you're forbidden to work - but also [you]