The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Population

Two Kurdish men consented to operate secretly to expose a network behind illegal commercial businesses because the criminals are damaging the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

The two, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team discovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was managing mini-marts, barbershops and car washes across the United Kingdom, and aimed to learn more about how it worked and who was involved.

Equipped with secret recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to work, looking to buy and operate a small shop from which to sell contraband tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were able to uncover how easy it is for a person in these conditions to start and manage a commercial operation on the main street in full view. Those participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their identities, enabling to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also managed to covertly film one of those at the centre of the network, who asserted that he could remove government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those using unauthorized employees.

"I aimed to contribute in revealing these unlawful operations [...] to declare that they don't speak for our community," says one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant personally. Saman entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his well-being was at threat.

The journalists admit that disagreements over unauthorized migration are significant in the UK and state they have both been anxious that the probe could inflame hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized employment "negatively affects the entire Kurdish population" and he considers compelled to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was anxious the publication could be seized upon by the far-right.

He states this especially affected him when he noticed that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was operating undercover. Placards and banners could be spotted at the gathering, displaying "we want our country returned".

The reporters have both been observing online reaction to the investigation from inside the Kurdish population and report it has sparked strong outrage for some. One Facebook post they spotted read: "In what way can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

A different urged their families in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also seen allegations that they were informants for the British government, and betrayers to other Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have compromised its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and extremely worried about the behavior of such people."

Most of those applying for refugee status say they are escaping political persecution, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the case for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He says he had to survive on under £20 a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which includes food, according to official regulations.

"Honestly speaking, this isn't sufficient to sustain a acceptable existence," explains Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are generally prevented from working, he feels a significant number are susceptible to being exploited and are essentially "compelled to labor in the unofficial sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the authorities said: "The government are unapologetic for denying asylum seekers the right to work - granting this would generate an incentive for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can require a long time to be processed with almost a third taking over 12 months, according to official statistics from the late March this current year.

The reporter says working illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to do, but he informed us he would not have done that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he interviewed laboring in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "confused", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"They expended their entire savings to migrate to the UK, they had their asylum denied and now they've sacrificed their entire investment."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

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