The Reasons Our Team Went Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish-background individuals consented to go undercover to uncover a organization behind illegal commercial establishments because the criminals are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they state.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish journalists who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team discovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was running small shops, hair salons and car washes across the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it worked and who was taking part.

Prepared with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, looking to acquire and run a convenience store from which to distribute contraband tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were able to uncover how straightforward it is for someone in these circumstances to establish and operate a business on the commercial area in plain sight. Those involved, we found, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to register the operations in their identities, assisting to fool the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also managed to covertly record one of those at the centre of the network, who asserted that he could erase official sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring unauthorized employees.

"Personally aimed to play a role in uncovering these unlawful activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not represent us," says one reporter, a ex- refugee applicant himself. The reporter came to the UK without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his well-being was at danger.

The investigators admit that tensions over illegal immigration are elevated in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the probe could intensify conflicts.

But the other reporter explains that the unauthorized working "damages the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he considers obligated to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was worried the publication could be used by the far-right.

He explains this particularly impressed him when he discovered that far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Banners and flags could be observed at the gathering, showing "we want our nation returned".

The reporters have both been monitoring online reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has generated significant anger for certain individuals. One Facebook post they observed read: "How can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

One more urged their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also encountered claims that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no intention of damaging the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our goal is to uncover those who have harmed its image. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply worried about the behavior of such people."

The majority of those seeking asylum claim they are fleeing political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He says he had to live on under twenty pounds a week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now are provided about £49 a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which includes food, according to official regulations.

"Honestly saying, this is not adequate to sustain a dignified existence," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly restricted from working, he believes a significant number are open to being manipulated and are essentially "forced to work in the black economy for as low as three pounds per hourly rate".

A official for the authorities stated: "We make no apology for not granting refugee applicants the permission to work - granting this would create an motivation for individuals to come to the United Kingdom illegally."

Refugee applications can require multiple years to be processed with nearly a third requiring more than one year, according to official data from the late March this year.

The reporter explains being employed without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely simple to achieve, but he informed us he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he met working in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "disoriented", notably those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"They used their entire money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application denied and now they've lost everything."

Ali acknowledges that these people seemed in dire straits.

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