The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals decided to operate secretly to expose a operation behind unlawful commercial establishments because the criminals are negatively affecting the image of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

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

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing convenience stores, hair salons and car washes the length of Britain, and wanted to discover more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Armed with covert cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, seeking to buy and operate a convenience store from which to trade contraband tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were able to uncover how easy it is for an individual in these situations to establish and run a commercial operation on the main street in plain sight. Those participating, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, assisting to deceive the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly document one of those at the centre of the operation, who stated that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those employing illegal laborers.

"I wanted to contribute in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for our community," explains Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a region that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a country - because his life was at danger.

The reporters acknowledge that tensions over illegal immigration are high in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the probe could intensify hostilities.

But Ali states that the unauthorized working "harms the whole Kurdish population" and he considers compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, Ali says he was anxious the reporting could be used by the radical right.

He explains this especially impressed him when he discovered that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was taking place in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Banners and banners could be spotted at the rally, showing "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring online response to the investigation from within the Kurdish population and explain it has generated significant outrage for some. One Facebook post they observed said: "How can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

One more demanded their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also read allegations that they were spies for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter states. "Our goal is to uncover those who have compromised its image. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and profoundly troubled about the behavior of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking asylum say they are fleeing politically motivated discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that supports asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the case for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He explains he had to live on under £20 a week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which offers meals, according to official regulations.

"Practically stating, this is not adequate to maintain a acceptable life," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are generally restricted from employment, he thinks many are open to being taken advantage of and are effectively "obligated to labor in the unofficial sector for as low as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the authorities said: "We make no apology for denying asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - doing so would establish an motivation for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can require years to be decided with approximately a 33% requiring over a year, according to government data from the late March this year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been extremely simple to accomplish, but he explained to us he would never have done that.

However, he states that those he encountered working in illegal mini-marts during his research seemed "disoriented", especially those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals used all their money to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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