Why Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men decided to go undercover to reveal a operation behind illegal main street businesses because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they say.

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

The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was running small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services across the United Kingdom, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Prepared with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to be employed, seeking to buy and manage a mini-mart from which to distribute contraband cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how easy it is for a person in these conditions to establish and manage a enterprise on the main street in full view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the enterprises in their names, helping to deceive the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly film one of those at the centre of the network, who stated that he could eliminate official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using unauthorized workers.

"Personally sought to play a role in exposing these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not speak for our community," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter came to the UK illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a region that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his life was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that disagreements over illegal migration are significant in the UK and say they have both been anxious that the investigation could worsen conflicts.

But Ali explains that the unauthorized labor "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he feels obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, Ali says he was worried the publication could be seized upon by the radical right.

He explains this especially affected him when he realized that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was happening in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and flags could be spotted at the rally, reading "we want our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been observing social media response to the exposé from within the Kurdish community and report it has generated strong outrage for some. One Facebook message they spotted said: "How can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

Another demanded their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also seen accusations that they were spies for the UK authorities, and traitors to other Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our objective is to uncover those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply concerned about the actions of such persons."

Most of those applying for asylum say they are escaping political oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist Saman, who, when he initially came to the UK, faced difficulties for many years. He states he had to survive on less than £20 a week while his refugee application was reviewed.

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

"Practically stating, this is not sufficient to support a dignified existence," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are largely prevented from employment, he believes many are susceptible to being exploited and are essentially "compelled to labor in the illegal sector for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the authorities commented: "The government do not apologize for denying refugee applicants the right to work - granting this would create an motivation for people to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can require a long time to be processed with approximately a one-third taking over one year, according to government data from the late March this current year.

The reporter says working without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite easy to achieve, but he told the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he explains that those he encountered laboring in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They spent all their savings to travel to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed their entire investment."

Ali concurs that these people seemed in dire straits.

"When [they] declare you're not allowed to work - but also [you]