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

A pair of Kurdish-background individuals decided to operate secretly to reveal a network behind illegal commercial establishments because the criminals are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the United Kingdom, they explain.

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

Investigators found that a Kurdish crime network was managing small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services across the UK, and aimed to discover more about how it functioned and who was involved.

Equipped with covert cameras, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish refugee applicants with no permission to be employed, seeking to purchase and manage a convenience store from which to trade unlawful cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to uncover how straightforward it is for an individual in these situations to set up and manage a enterprise on the main street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we learned, pay Kurds who have UK residency to register the enterprises in their names, enabling to mislead the officials.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to covertly document one of those at the core of the network, who stated that he could remove official penalties of up to £60k imposed on those using illegal employees.

"Personally sought to participate in revealing these unlawful operations [...] to say that they don't represent us," says one reporter, a ex- asylum seeker himself. Saman came to the UK illegally, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a nation - because his well-being was at risk.

The reporters recognize that disagreements over illegal immigration are high in the UK and say they have both been anxious that the inquiry could intensify hostilities.

But Ali states that the illegal employment "harms the whole Kurdish community" and he feels compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Additionally, Ali says he was worried the publication could be used by the radical right.

He explains this especially struck him when he discovered that far-right activist a prominent activist's national unity rally was taking place in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Placards and banners could be seen at the gathering, reading "we want our nation back".

Both journalists have both been tracking social media response to the investigation from within the Kurdish-origin community and explain it has sparked significant outrage for some. One Facebook comment they found said: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

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

They have also encountered allegations that they were informants for the UK authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish community," Saman explains. "Our objective is to expose those who have compromised its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and deeply troubled about the actions of such people."

The majority of those seeking asylum state they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the case for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, struggled for years. He states he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his refugee application was considered.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which provides meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't adequate to maintain a respectable life," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from working, he believes a significant number are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to labor in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".

A spokesperson for the government department said: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the permission to work - doing so would establish an incentive for people to come to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can take years to be processed with nearly a one-third requiring more than 12 months, according to official figures from the late March this current year.

The reporter says being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite straightforward to do, but he informed us he would not have done that.

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

"These individuals used all of their funds to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum refused and now they've forfeited everything."

Ali concurs that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

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