The Reasons Our Team Went Undercover to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men consented to work covertly to uncover a network behind unlawful commercial establishments because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

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

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was managing small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and wanted to discover more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Prepared with hidden cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no authorization to work, seeking to purchase and operate a convenience store from which to trade unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

They were successful to uncover how easy it is for an individual in these conditions to set up and run a business on the High Street in public view. Those participating, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their identities, enabling to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also managed to discreetly record one of those at the centre of the operation, who stated that he could erase government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those using unauthorized laborers.

"Personally wanted to participate in exposing these illegal practices [...] to declare that they don't characterize Kurdish people," explains one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a nation - because his well-being was at threat.

The journalists recognize that conflicts over illegal migration are significant in the UK and say they have both been anxious that the inquiry could inflame hostilities.

But Ali says that the illegal labor "damages the entire Kurdish population" and he feels obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, Ali mentions he was concerned the reporting could be exploited by the far-right.

He explains this especially struck him when he discovered that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity protest was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and flags could be observed at the gathering, reading "we want our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and say it has generated significant frustration for some. One social media comment they observed read: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

Another called for their relatives in the Kurdish region to be slaughtered.

They have also read accusations that they were informants for the UK government, and betrayers to other Kurds. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our goal is to reveal those who have compromised its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely worried about the behavior of such persons."

The majority of those seeking asylum claim they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially came to the UK, experienced challenges for years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a per week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now get approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which includes food, according to Home Office policies.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't enough to support a acceptable lifestyle," explains Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally prevented from employment, he thinks many are susceptible to being manipulated and are essentially "compelled to labor in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A representative for the Home Office stated: "The government do not apologize for refusing to grant refugee applicants the authorization to be employed - granting this would generate an motivation for people to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum applications can require a long time to be processed with approximately a 33% taking over a year, according to government figures from the late March this current year.

Saman states working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very easy to accomplish, but he explained to us he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he encountered working in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"They used all their money to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application denied and now they've forfeited everything."

Ali agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] state you're prohibited to work - but additionally [you]