The Reasons We Went Covert to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish-background individuals consented to operate secretly to reveal a operation behind illegal main street businesses because the lawbreakers are causing harm the standing of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they say.

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

The team discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was running convenience stores, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout Britain, and sought to discover more about how it operated and who was participating.

Equipped with hidden cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to be employed, seeking to acquire and operate a convenience store from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how easy it is for someone in these situations to establish and run a enterprise on the commercial area in full view. The individuals participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, enabling to fool the authorities.

Ali and Saman also were able to covertly film one of those at the centre of the operation, who asserted that he could eliminate government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring unauthorized workers.

"Personally aimed to participate in exposing these illegal activities [...] to declare that they do not represent Kurdish people," explains one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that spans the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at danger.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the probe could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized labor "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Additionally, the journalist mentions he was worried the publication could be exploited by the radical right.

He says this especially impressed him when he discovered that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating secretly. Banners and flags could be observed at the gathering, showing "we demand our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and report it has sparked intense frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook message they found read: "In what way can we locate and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

One more called for their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also seen claims that they were spies for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of hurting the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter says. "Our goal is to uncover those who have harmed its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly concerned about the behavior of such people."

Most of those applying for refugee status say they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the a charitable organization, a charity that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

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

Refugee applicants now get approximately £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which provides food, according to official policies.

"Practically speaking, this is not adequate to maintain a dignified lifestyle," explains Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally restricted from employment, he thinks numerous are vulnerable to being manipulated and are essentially "forced to work in the black market for as little as £3 per hour".

A representative for the government department said: "The government are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the permission to work - doing so would establish an motivation for individuals to migrate to the UK illegally."

Refugee cases can take multiple years to be decided with almost a one-third taking more than 12 months, according to government figures from the spring this current year.

The reporter states being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very straightforward to do, but he told us he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he met laboring in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "lost", notably those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all of their savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've sacrificed their entire investment."

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

"If [they] say you're not allowed to be employed - but simultaneously [you]