Why Our Team Went Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to operate secretly to uncover a organization behind illegal High Street enterprises because the wrongdoers are causing harm the image of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

The two, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both lived legally in the UK for many years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was operating convenience stores, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was participating.

Prepared with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no authorization to be employed, looking to purchase and operate a convenience store from which to trade illegal cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to uncover how simple it is for a person in these conditions to establish and manage a commercial operation on the High Street in full view. The individuals participating, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their names, helping to deceive the officials.

Ali and Saman also managed to discreetly film one of those at the core of the operation, who claimed that he could remove government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those employing unauthorized workers.

"Personally wanted to play a role in revealing these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not characterize our community," says Saman, a ex- refugee applicant himself. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a state - because his safety was at danger.

The investigators recognize that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been concerned that the probe could worsen tensions.

But Ali says that the illegal working "damages the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he considers driven to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist explains he was concerned the publication could be used by the extreme right.

He states this notably struck him when he realized that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity march was happening in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working undercover. Signs and flags could be seen at the protest, reading "we demand our country back".

Both journalists have both been tracking online feedback to the investigation from inside the Kurdish community and say it has caused intense outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook post they found said: "In what way can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

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

They have also seen accusations that they were spies for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our objective is to reveal those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely troubled about the behavior of such individuals."

The majority of those seeking asylum claim they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a organization that supports asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for years. He states he had to live on under £20 a week while his refugee application was processed.

Asylum seekers now get about forty-nine pounds a per week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides meals, according to government regulations.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't sufficient to support a respectable life," says Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are largely prohibited from working, he thinks numerous are open to being exploited and are essentially "compelled to work in the black sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A representative for the authorities commented: "We are unapologetic for denying refugee applicants the authorization to work - doing so would establish an reason for people to come to the UK without authorization."

Asylum cases can require a long time to be decided with nearly a one-third taking more than 12 months, according to government data from the late March this current year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he told us he would not have done that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he encountered working in illegal mini-marts during his investigation seemed "disoriented", particularly those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the legal challenge.

"They expended all their money to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've forfeited everything."

The other reporter concurs that these individuals seemed hopeless.

"If [they] say you're forbidden to work - but additionally [you]