The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background individuals decided to work covertly to reveal a organization behind illegal commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they say.

The two, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin journalists who have both lived legally in the UK for many years.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing small shops, barbershops and car washes across the UK, and aimed to discover more about how it functioned and who was participating.

Armed with covert recording devices, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to work, seeking to acquire and operate a small shop from which to distribute unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were successful to reveal how simple it is for a person in these conditions to establish and run a enterprise on the main street in plain sight. Those involved, we found, compensate Kurds who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, enabling to mislead the government agencies.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly document one of those at the heart of the organization, who asserted that he could remove government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those employing unauthorized employees.

"Personally aimed to contribute in exposing these illegal operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't characterize our community," says one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the UK illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that covers the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his well-being was at risk.

The investigators admit that conflicts over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and say they have both been worried that the probe could worsen hostilities.

But Ali says that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the entire Kurdish population" and he believes compelled to "expose it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist explains he was concerned the coverage could be used by the radical right.

He explains this especially struck him when he noticed that far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity protest was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Placards and flags could be observed at the rally, displaying "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been tracking social media reaction to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish-origin community and report it has generated intense outrage for some. One Facebook message they observed stated: "How can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read accusations that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to other Kurds. "We are not spies, and we have no desire of harming the Kurdish community," Saman says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have damaged its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and extremely worried about the actions of such persons."

Most of those seeking refugee status state they are escaping politically motivated persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a organization that helps refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the situation for our undercover journalist Saman, who, when he first arrived to the United Kingdom, struggled for many years. He states he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Refugee applicants now get approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which offers meals, according to official guidance.

"Practically speaking, this is not sufficient to support a dignified life," states Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are generally prohibited from employment, he feels a significant number are vulnerable to being exploited and are essentially "forced to labor in the black sector for as little as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the government department commented: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - granting this would generate an reason for people to come to the UK without authorization."

Refugee cases can take a long time to be processed with nearly a 33% taking more than a year, according to official figures from the end of March this current year.

Saman explains working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he told the team he would not have done that.

Nonetheless, he explains that those he interviewed laboring in illegal convenience stores during his work seemed "confused", particularly those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"They spent all their savings to come to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've forfeited all they had."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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