Why We Went Undercover to Reveal Crime in the Kurdish-origin Community

A pair of Kurdish individuals agreed to work covertly to uncover a organization behind illegal commercial businesses because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the UK, they state.

The pair, who we are referring to as Saman and Ali, are Kurdish investigators who have both lived legally in the United Kingdom for a long time.

The team found that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was managing small shops, barbershops and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and wanted to learn more about how it worked and who was participating.

Armed with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no authorization to work, seeking to buy and operate a small shop from which to sell illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to uncover how straightforward it is for a person in these situations to start and run a commercial operation on the High Street in plain sight. Those involved, we learned, compensate Kurds who have British citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, assisting to deceive the officials.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to covertly film one of those at the centre of the operation, who stated that he could eliminate official fines of up to £60,000 imposed on those employing unauthorized workers.

"I sought to contribute in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't speak for our community," states one reporter, a former asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the UK illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a territory that spans the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his safety was at danger.

The reporters recognize that disagreements over illegal migration are high in the United Kingdom and state they have both been worried that the inquiry could intensify tensions.

But Ali says that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he believes driven to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, the journalist says he was worried the publication could be exploited by the radical right.

He states this notably affected him when he realized that extreme right activist a prominent activist's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Placards and flags could be spotted at the protest, displaying "we want our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media reaction to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and say it has generated significant frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook message they spotted read: "How can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read allegations that they were agents for the UK authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no intention of hurting the Kurdish community," one reporter explains. "Our aim is to reveal those who have harmed its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin heritage and extremely worried about the actions of such persons."

The majority of those applying for refugee status say they are escaping political discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that helps asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

This was the situation for our covert reporter Saman, who, when he initially came to the United Kingdom, experienced challenges for many years. He says he had to live on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was considered.

Refugee applicants now are provided about forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which includes meals, according to government guidance.

"Honestly speaking, this is not sufficient to support a dignified existence," states the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prevented from employment, he thinks many are vulnerable to being manipulated and are practically "forced to labor in the unofficial sector for as little as £3 per hourly rate".

A official for the Home Office said: "We do not apologize for not granting asylum seekers the permission to work - granting this would create an incentive for people to migrate to the UK without authorization."

Asylum applications can take multiple years to be resolved with almost a third taking more than 12 months, according to official figures from the late March this current year.

The reporter states being employed without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or convenience store would have been quite easy to do, but he explained to the team he would not have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he states that those he encountered laboring in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all of their savings to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've forfeited their entire investment."

The other reporter agrees that these people seemed in dire straits.

"If [they] declare you're not allowed to be employed - but simultaneously [you]