The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background individuals decided to work covertly to expose a organization behind unlawful High Street establishments because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the United Kingdom, they state.

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

The team discovered that a Kurdish criminal operation was managing mini-marts, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was involved.

Armed with hidden recording devices, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, looking to purchase and operate a mini-mart from which to trade contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to discover how simple it is for a person in these situations to set up and manage a commercial operation on the High Street in public view. The individuals involved, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the businesses in their identities, enabling to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly document one of those at the core of the operation, who claimed that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to £60k encountered those hiring unauthorized employees.

"I aimed to participate in revealing these illegal practices [...] to say that they don't represent our community," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker personally. The reporter entered the UK illegally, having escaped from Kurdistan - a area that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his life was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that disagreements over unauthorized migration are high in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the investigation could inflame conflicts.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized labor "negatively affects the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he feels compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, Ali says he was worried the reporting could be seized upon by the far-right.

He says this particularly impressed him when he noticed that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity rally was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Signs and flags could be seen at the rally, reading "we demand our country returned".

Both journalists have both been observing online feedback to the exposé from inside the Kurdish community and explain it has sparked significant outrage for some. One social media post they observed stated: "In what way can we locate and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

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

They have also encountered claims that they were spies for the British government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of hurting the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter says. "Our aim is to expose those who have damaged its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely concerned about the actions of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking refugee status state they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a organization that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert journalist Saman, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He explains he had to survive on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Asylum seekers now are provided about £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which provides food, according to Home Office policies.

"Practically speaking, this is not sufficient to support a acceptable existence," says the expert from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely prevented from employment, he thinks many are open to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to work in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: "The government do not apologize for denying asylum seekers the right to be employed - granting this would establish an reason for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can require years to be decided with almost a third taking over 12 months, according to government data from the spring this year.

The reporter explains being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to accomplish, but he informed us he would never have engaged in that.

However, he states that those he encountered working in unauthorized convenience stores during his investigation seemed "confused", particularly those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

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

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] state you're not allowed to be employed - but also [you]