Why We Chose to Go Covert to Expose Crime in the Kurdish Community

Two Kurdish men decided to go undercover to expose a organization behind illegal main street enterprises because the criminals are damaging the reputation of Kurdish people in the UK, they say.

The pair, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish reporters who have both resided legally in the UK for a long time.

The team discovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was participating.

Armed with covert cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no authorization to be employed, looking to buy and run a convenience store from which to trade contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to discover how simple it is for a person in these circumstances to establish and manage a enterprise on the main street in plain sight. The individuals involved, we learned, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to legally establish the businesses in their identities, helping to deceive the government agencies.

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

"Personally wanted to participate in exposing these unlawful practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't speak for us," explains Saman, a former refugee applicant personally. Saman came to the country illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that covers the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his well-being was at danger.

The journalists acknowledge that tensions over illegal migration are high in the UK and state they have both been concerned that the probe could worsen conflicts.

But Ali states that the illegal labor "damages the entire Kurdish-origin community" and he feels compelled to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into public view".

Separately, the journalist mentions he was worried the publication could be exploited by the far-right.

He states this notably impressed him when he discovered that extreme right activist a prominent activist's national unity march was happening in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating covertly. Signs and banners could be spotted at the protest, reading "we demand our nation returned".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring online reaction to the exposé from inside the Kurdish-origin population and say it has generated intense anger for certain individuals. One social media post they found said: "In what way can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

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

They have also read claims that they were informants for the UK government, and betrayers to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish-origin community," Saman states. "Our goal is to reveal those who have harmed its image. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and deeply concerned about the behavior of such individuals."

Most of those applying for asylum claim they are escaping political discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert journalist one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for years. He states he had to live on under £20 a week while his refugee application was reviewed.

Asylum seekers now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which offers meals, according to government regulations.

"Honestly speaking, this isn't sufficient to maintain a respectable existence," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prevented from employment, he feels a significant number are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are effectively "obligated to labor in the illegal economy for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the government department commented: "We are unapologetic for not granting refugee applicants the permission to be employed - granting this would create an motivation for people to travel to the UK without authorization."

Refugee applications can take multiple years to be processed with approximately a 33% requiring over 12 months, according to government data from the spring this year.

The reporter explains working without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite straightforward to achieve, but he informed the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he encountered employed in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the legal challenge.

"They spent all of their money to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've sacrificed all they had."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] state you're prohibited to be employed - but simultaneously [you]