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

A pair of Kurdish individuals decided to operate secretly to expose a operation behind illegal commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both resided lawfully in the UK for a long time.

Investigators found that a Kurdish criminal operation was running convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and wanted to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Armed with secret recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to work, seeking to acquire and operate a small shop from which to trade illegal cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to reveal how simple it is for a person in these conditions to establish and manage a business on the main street in plain sight. The individuals participating, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, assisting to deceive the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly record one of those at the core of the network, who claimed that he could remove government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those employing unauthorized employees.

"Personally wanted to play a role in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to say that they do not represent our community," says Saman, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a territory that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his safety was at risk.

The journalists admit that tensions over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and state they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame conflicts.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized working "damages the entire Kurdish community" and he feels obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was anxious the publication could be used by the far-right.

He says this particularly impressed him when he discovered that extreme right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Signs and banners could be observed at the rally, displaying "we demand our nation back".

Both journalists have both been observing online response to the exposé from inside the Kurdish-origin community and report it has caused intense outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they observed read: "How can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

Another urged their families in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also encountered allegations that they were spies for the UK government, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to reveal those who have compromised its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly troubled about the actions of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the UK, struggled for many years. He explains he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides meals, according to Home Office policies.

"Practically saying, this is not sufficient to maintain a acceptable life," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from employment, he feels many are susceptible to being exploited and are practically "obligated to work in the illegal economy for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department stated: "The government are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would establish an motivation for people to come to the UK illegally."

Asylum applications can take multiple years to be resolved with almost a one-third requiring more than a year, according to official statistics from the spring this year.

Saman explains being employed illegally in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely straightforward to achieve, but he informed us he would never have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he met employed in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "confused", especially those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"They spent their entire funds to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited everything."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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