The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish individuals decided to operate secretly to expose a operation behind unlawful main street businesses because the lawbreakers are damaging the standing of Kurds in the Britain, they say.

The pair, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish investigators who have both resided lawfully in the United Kingdom for a long time.

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked crime network was running convenience stores, hair salons and car washes across the United Kingdom, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was involved.

Armed with hidden cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to be employed, attempting to buy and manage a mini-mart from which to trade unlawful tobacco products and vapes.

They were successful to discover how easy it is for an individual in these conditions to start and manage a enterprise on the commercial area in public view. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the operations in their identities, assisting to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to discreetly film one of those at the centre of the operation, who asserted that he could eliminate government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those using illegal employees.

"Personally sought to play a role in revealing these unlawful activities [...] to say that they don't characterize us," says one reporter, a former refugee applicant personally. The reporter came to the country without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a territory that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that disagreements over unauthorized immigration are elevated in the UK and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could inflame tensions.

But Ali says that the illegal working "harms the whole Kurdish population" and he believes compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Additionally, Ali mentions he was worried the publication could be used by the extreme right.

He explains this particularly impressed him when he realized that radical right campaigner Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Placards and banners could be spotted at the protest, showing "we want our country returned".

The reporters have both been monitoring social media reaction to the exposé from within the Kurdish-origin community and say it has caused intense outrage for some. One social media comment they observed stated: "In what way can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

One more demanded their relatives in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also read allegations that they were spies for the British authorities, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not spies, and we have no desire of damaging the Kurdish-origin population," Saman explains. "Our aim is to reveal those who have harmed its reputation. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply worried about the actions of such people."

Most of those seeking asylum say they are escaping political discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a charity that supports asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the scenario for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He explains he had to survive on less than £20 a per week while his asylum claim was reviewed.

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

"Honestly stating, this is not enough to maintain a respectable existence," says the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are mostly prevented from working, he feels many are open to being exploited and are essentially "compelled to work in the black economy for as little as three pounds per hour".

A representative for the government department commented: "The government are unapologetic for denying asylum seekers the right to be employed - doing so would create an reason for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee applications can require a long time to be processed with approximately a third taking more than one year, according to government figures from the spring this current year.

Saman explains working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very easy to accomplish, but he told us he would never have done that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed employed in unauthorized mini-marts during his work seemed "confused", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

"They used all of their savings to migrate to the UK, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've lost all they had."

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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