The Reasons Our Team Went Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to operate secretly to uncover a organization behind illegal High Street businesses because the lawbreakers are damaging the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they say.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for years.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing convenience stores, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and aimed to find out more about how it worked and who was participating.

Prepared with secret recording devices, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no permission to work, seeking to buy and run a mini-mart from which to sell illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were successful to discover how simple it is for a person in these circumstances to set up and run a commercial operation on the High Street in plain sight. Those participating, we found, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their identities, assisting to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly film one of those at the core of the operation, who stated that he could eliminate official penalties of up to £60,000 encountered those hiring unauthorized laborers.

"I wanted to play a role in uncovering these unlawful practices [...] to declare that they don't characterize us," states Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman came to the UK without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that straddles the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his safety was at danger.

The investigators admit that disagreements over unauthorized migration are significant in the UK and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify hostilities.

But the other reporter says that the unauthorized working "harms the whole Kurdish community" and he believes driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was concerned the coverage could be used by the radical right.

He explains this particularly affected him when he discovered that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating undercover. Placards and flags could be seen at the gathering, reading "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media feedback to the exposé from inside the Kurdish-origin community and explain it has generated intense frustration for certain individuals. One social media post they found read: "How can we find and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

One more called for their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also seen allegations that they were spies for the British government, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish population," one reporter states. "Our aim is to expose those who have compromised its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply worried about the activities of such people."

The majority of those applying for asylum claim they are escaping politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He explains he had to live on less than twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now get approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in shelter which provides food, according to government guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't enough to sustain a respectable life," says the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prohibited from working, he believes numerous are open to being taken advantage of and are effectively "obligated to work in the black economy for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the authorities stated: "We do not apologize for refusing to grant asylum seekers the permission to be employed - granting this would generate an reason for people to come to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can take multiple years to be decided with almost a one-third requiring over one year, according to government data from the late March this current year.

Saman explains working illegally in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite straightforward to do, but he told the team he would not have participated in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he interviewed employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeals process.

"They expended all of their money to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application refused and now they've forfeited all they had."

Ali concurs that these individuals seemed hopeless.

"If [they] declare you're prohibited to work - but simultaneously [you]