Why We Went Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to operate secretly to expose a organization behind illegal High Street businesses because the lawbreakers are damaging the standing of Kurds in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both lived lawfully in the United Kingdom for years.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating convenience stores, hair salons and car washes the length of Britain, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was participating.

Prepared with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no authorization to work, looking to acquire and run a small shop from which to distribute illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

They were able to reveal how straightforward it is for someone in these situations to establish and operate a enterprise on the main street in public view. Those participating, we learned, compensate Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, helping to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly record one of those at the centre of the operation, who stated that he could eliminate government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those using unauthorized workers.

"I aimed to play a role in revealing these illegal operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not characterize us," says one reporter, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman came to the United Kingdom without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a country - because his well-being was at danger.

The reporters acknowledge that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and state they have both been anxious that the investigation could worsen tensions.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized labor "damages the entire Kurdish community" and he considers obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali says he was anxious the publication could be exploited by the radical right.

He says this particularly struck him when he noticed that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom rally was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working secretly. Signs and flags could be spotted at the rally, displaying "we want our nation back".

Both journalists have both been observing online feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish community and explain it has generated strong anger for some. One Facebook post they observed said: "In what way can we locate and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

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

They have also seen claims that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no intention of harming 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-origin identity and profoundly troubled about the activities of such individuals."

Most of those seeking refugee status say they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that helps asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He states he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which offers meals, according to official guidance.

"Honestly speaking, this is not sufficient to sustain a acceptable lifestyle," states the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from working, he believes a significant number are vulnerable to being manipulated and are effectively "forced to labor in the black sector for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A representative for the Home Office said: "We make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the permission to be employed - granting this would generate an reason for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum cases can take a long time to be processed with nearly a 33% taking over a year, according to government statistics from the end of March this year.

The reporter explains working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely easy to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have done that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed working in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "confused", particularly those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all of their savings to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed their entire investment."

Ali agrees that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

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