Why We Chose to Go Undercover to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to go undercover to expose a network behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they explain.

The pair, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish journalists who have both lived lawfully in the United Kingdom for many years.

The team found that a Kurdish crime network was managing mini-marts, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Armed with hidden recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to purchase and manage a convenience store from which to sell unlawful cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to reveal how simple it is for a person in these circumstances to set up and manage a commercial operation on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we learned, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the businesses in their identities, enabling to deceive the authorities.

Saman and Ali also were able to covertly film one of those at the core of the operation, who claimed that he could erase official penalties of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring illegal laborers.

"I aimed to play a role in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they do not speak for our community," says one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a territory that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his safety was at danger.

The investigators recognize that tensions over unauthorized migration are elevated in the UK and say they have both been worried that the investigation could worsen hostilities.

But Ali states that the illegal employment "harms the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he feels obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, the journalist says he was anxious the publication could be used by the far-right.

He states this notably affected him when he discovered that radical right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Signs and banners could be observed at the protest, showing "we want our country returned".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media feedback to the investigation from inside the Kurdish-origin population and report it has generated significant outrage for some. One Facebook message they found read: "How can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

One more demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also seen accusations that they were informants for the British government, and betrayers to fellow Kurds. "We are not informants, and we have no aim of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter states. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish heritage and deeply worried about the behavior of such people."

The majority of those seeking asylum say they are fleeing political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a charity that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist Saman, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to survive on under twenty pounds a week while his refugee application was considered.

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

"Honestly saying, this isn't adequate to maintain a respectable lifestyle," says the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from working, he feels numerous are open to being manipulated and are effectively "obligated to labor in the black market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the authorities stated: "The government make no apology for denying asylum seekers the right to be employed - doing so would create an motivation for people to come to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee applications can require a long time to be processed with almost a third requiring more than one year, according to official figures from the end of March this year.

Saman states being employed without authorization in a car wash, barbershop or convenience store would have been quite easy to achieve, but he told us he would never have engaged in that.

However, he states that those he interviewed employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his research seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"They spent all their money to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've forfeited all they had."

Ali agrees that these people seemed in dire straits.

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