The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish-background men agreed to work covertly to reveal a network behind unlawful main street enterprises because the criminals are negatively affecting the standing of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they say.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish-linked crime network was running small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and aimed to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Prepared with secret cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to work, looking to buy and operate a small shop from which to sell contraband tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to discover how simple it is for a person in these situations to set up and run a business on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their identities, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also were able to discreetly film one of those at the core of the network, who claimed that he could erase government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those using unauthorized employees.

"Personally sought to play a role in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not represent Kurdish people," says Saman, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman came to the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his well-being was at risk.

The investigators acknowledge that conflicts over illegal migration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the investigation could intensify conflicts.

But Ali says that the unauthorized labor "harms the entire Kurdish community" and he believes obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was worried the publication could be exploited by the extreme right.

He states this notably struck him when he noticed that extreme right activist a prominent activist's national unity protest was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating secretly. Banners and flags could be seen at the gathering, reading "we demand our nation back".

Both journalists have both been tracking online reaction to the exposé from inside the Kurdish community and report it has caused intense anger for some. One social media message they observed said: "In what way can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

Another called for their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also encountered accusations that they were agents for the UK government, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to expose those who have damaged its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and extremely concerned about the activities of such persons."

The majority of those seeking refugee status claim they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a organization that assists asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the case for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He explains he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which provides meals, according to government policies.

"Realistically speaking, this is not adequate to maintain a respectable lifestyle," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally restricted from working, he feels a significant number are open to being taken advantage of and are practically "compelled to labor in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the government department said: "The government are unapologetic for refusing to grant refugee applicants the permission to be employed - doing so would generate an reason for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can take multiple years to be processed with almost a one-third requiring more than a year, according to official statistics from the end of March this current year.

The reporter states working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been very easy to accomplish, but he told us he would never have done that.

However, he says that those he encountered working in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"They spent all their money to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed desperate.

"When [they] declare you're forbidden to work - but simultaneously [you]