Why We Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men consented to work covertly to uncover a network behind unlawful commercial businesses because the lawbreakers are causing harm the image of Kurdish people in the UK, they explain.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was operating mini-marts, hair salons and car washes across the United Kingdom, and sought to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Armed with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to work, attempting to acquire and run a small shop from which to distribute unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

They were able to reveal how easy it is for an individual in these circumstances to start and run a commercial operation on the High Street in plain sight. The individuals participating, we learned, compensate Kurds who have UK residency to register the operations in their names, assisting to deceive the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly document one of those at the centre of the organization, who claimed that he could remove official fines of up to £60k imposed on those employing unauthorized workers.

"Personally aimed to participate in uncovering these unlawful practices [...] to say that they don't represent our community," explains one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker personally. The reporter came to the country without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that straddles the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his life was at risk.

The investigators admit that disagreements over illegal immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and state they have both been anxious that the investigation could worsen hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized working "damages the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he believes driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, the journalist explains he was worried the publication could be exploited by the radical right.

He explains this particularly impressed him when he noticed that extreme right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity march was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Banners and flags could be observed at the gathering, showing "we want our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking online feedback to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has sparked intense outrage for some. One social media comment they found read: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like animals!"

A different urged their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also read accusations that they were informants for the UK government, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "We are not spies, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter says. "Our aim is to uncover those who have harmed its image. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply troubled about the actions of such persons."

The majority of those applying for asylum claim they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a charity that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first came to the UK, struggled for years. He states he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was processed.

Asylum seekers now get approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in shelter which provides meals, according to Home Office policies.

"Honestly stating, this isn't sufficient to support a acceptable lifestyle," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly restricted from employment, he feels many are susceptible to being manipulated and are essentially "obligated to labor in the unofficial economy for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office commented: "The government make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the right to work - granting this would create an motivation for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can take a long time to be decided with almost a 33% requiring over one year, according to official data from the spring this current year.

Saman states working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to do, but he told us he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he encountered laboring in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"They spent their entire savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these individuals seemed desperate.

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