The Reasons Our Team Went Covert to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish-background men agreed to operate secretly to expose a operation behind illegal main street enterprises because the criminals are causing harm the image of Kurds in the Britain, they state.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish criminal operation was operating small shops, hair salons and car washes the length of the UK, and wanted to discover more about how it functioned and who was taking part.

Armed with secret cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no permission to work, attempting to purchase and run a convenience store from which to distribute unlawful tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to reveal how easy it is for a person in these circumstances to start and run a business on the High Street in plain sight. Those involved, we found, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their names, assisting to mislead the officials.

Ali and Saman also managed to secretly record one of those at the core of the operation, who stated that he could remove government fines of up to £60,000 faced those hiring unauthorized laborers.

"Personally sought to play a role in exposing these illegal operations [...] to say that they do not characterize Kurdish people," states one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the country without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that spans the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at threat.

The investigators recognize that conflicts over unauthorized migration are elevated in the UK and say they have both been worried that the probe could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized labor "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he believes obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, Ali explains he was worried the publication could be seized upon by the extreme right.

He states this particularly affected him when he noticed that radical right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was happening in London on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Signs and flags could be spotted at the gathering, showing "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish community and report it has caused intense anger for some. One social media comment they observed stated: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

One more demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen claims that they were spies for the UK government, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no intention of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman states. "Our objective is to reveal those who have damaged its image. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely troubled about the behavior of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status state they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that assists asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the UK, faced difficulties for years. He says he had to live on less than twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't sufficient to support a acceptable existence," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely prevented from employment, he believes numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are essentially "forced to work in the unofficial sector for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the authorities said: "We do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the permission to be employed - granting this would create an incentive for individuals to travel to the UK without authorization."

Refugee applications can take years to be processed with approximately a 33% taking more than one year, according to official data from the end of March this year.

Saman states working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely straightforward to do, but he explained to the team he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he interviewed working in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "lost", notably those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals expended their entire funds to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've sacrificed everything."

Ali agrees that these individuals seemed hopeless.

"When [they] state you're prohibited to work - but additionally [you]