The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish-background individuals decided to operate secretly to reveal a operation behind illegal High Street establishments because the wrongdoers are damaging the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish reporters who have both lived lawfully in the UK for many years.

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was managing small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services across the United Kingdom, and sought to learn more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Equipped with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to be employed, looking to buy and operate a convenience store from which to sell unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to reveal how simple it is for an individual in these situations to start and run a business on the main street in public view. The individuals involved, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the businesses in their identities, assisting to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly film one of those at the core of the network, who claimed that he could eliminate government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring illegal employees.

"Personally sought to participate in revealing these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not characterize Kurdish people," states one reporter, a former refugee applicant himself. The reporter came to the United Kingdom illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that straddles the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his safety was at threat.

The journalists acknowledge that disagreements over illegal migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify conflicts.

But Ali says that the unauthorized working "damages the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist mentions he was concerned the coverage could be seized upon by the far-right.

He states this especially impressed him when he discovered that far-right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Banners and banners could be observed at the gathering, displaying "we demand our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin community and report it has generated significant anger for certain individuals. One Facebook message they found stated: "How can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

A different called for their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read accusations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and betrayers to other Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter says. "Our aim is to uncover those who have compromised its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply worried about the actions of such persons."

Most of those seeking asylum state they are fleeing political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He states he had to survive on under £20 a week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

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

"Realistically stating, this isn't enough to maintain a respectable existence," says Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prohibited from employment, he thinks numerous are open to being taken advantage of and are essentially "compelled to work in the unofficial economy for as little as £3 per hour".

A official for the authorities stated: "We make no apology for denying refugee applicants the permission to work - doing so would generate an motivation for people to migrate to the UK illegally."

Asylum cases can take years to be processed with approximately a one-third requiring over one year, according to official statistics from the end of March this year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been very straightforward to achieve, but he explained to the team he would not have done that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he met working in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"These individuals expended their entire funds to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've lost their entire investment."

Ali concurs that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] state you're forbidden to be employed - but additionally [you]