Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

Two Kurdish-background men decided to operate secretly to reveal a network behind unlawful commercial businesses because the criminals are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both resided legally in the United Kingdom for years.

The team found that a Kurdish criminal operation was operating small shops, barbershops and car washes the length of the United Kingdom, and aimed to find out more about how it worked and who was participating.

Armed with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, seeking to buy and operate a convenience store from which to sell illegal tobacco products and vapes.

They were able to uncover how simple it is for a person in these conditions to set up and run a business on the High Street in public view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, assisting to fool the officials.

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

"Personally wanted to contribute in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to declare that they don't speak for Kurdish people," says one reporter, a former refugee applicant himself. The reporter came to the UK illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his safety was at danger.

The reporters recognize that tensions over illegal immigration are high in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify hostilities.

But Ali states that the illegal employment "negatively affects the entire Kurdish community" and he feels driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was anxious the reporting could be used by the radical right.

He says this particularly affected him when he discovered that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march was occurring in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Signs and banners could be observed at the rally, showing "we want our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media reaction to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin population and say it has caused significant outrage for some. One Facebook comment they observed said: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

A different urged their relatives in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also read allegations that they were agents for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish-origin community," Saman states. "Our objective is to reveal those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish heritage and profoundly troubled about the behavior of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are escaping politically motivated persecution, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a organization that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He explains he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his refugee application was processed.

Refugee applicants now get about £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which provides meals, according to government guidance.

"Honestly stating, this is not sufficient to support a dignified lifestyle," explains the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are generally restricted from working, he believes numerous are vulnerable to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the illegal sector for as low as £3 per hour".

A representative for the Home Office stated: "The government do not apologize for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to work - granting this would establish an reason for people to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum cases can take a long time to be resolved with almost a one-third requiring over one year, according to government data from the end of March this current year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been very easy to accomplish, but he told the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed laboring in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals expended their entire savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've lost everything."

Ali agrees that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

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