Why Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to go undercover to expose a operation behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are causing harm the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating mini-marts, hair salons and car washes the length of Britain, and aimed to discover more about how it functioned and who was involved.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, seeking to acquire and run a small shop from which to sell unlawful cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how easy it is for someone in these situations to set up and run a enterprise on the High Street in plain sight. Those participating, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the businesses in their identities, assisting to fool the officials.

Ali and Saman also were able to covertly record one of those at the centre of the organization, who stated that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those hiring unauthorized employees.

"Personally sought to play a role in exposing these illegal operations [...] to say that they do not represent our community," says one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his well-being was at threat.

The investigators admit that conflicts over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and say they have both been concerned that the inquiry could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal working "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he feels compelled to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist says he was concerned the reporting could be used by the radical right.

He explains this notably affected him when he realized that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Placards and banners could be observed at the protest, showing "we want our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring online response to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin population and report it has generated intense outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they found said: "How can we locate and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

Another demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also encountered accusations that they were informants for the British authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish population," one reporter says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply concerned about the behavior of such individuals."

Most of those seeking asylum claim they are escaping political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover reporter one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now get approximately £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which includes food, according to Home Office policies.

"Honestly stating, this is not sufficient to sustain a respectable life," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from working, he thinks many are vulnerable to being exploited and are effectively "obligated to work in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "The government make no apology for denying refugee applicants the authorization to work - doing so would generate an incentive for individuals to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Refugee cases can require a long time to be decided with almost a third taking more than a year, according to government figures from the late March this current year.

Saman states being employed illegally in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to accomplish, but he told us he would never have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he met employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"These individuals spent all of their funds to come to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed everything."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

"If [they] say you're forbidden to be employed - but simultaneously [you]