The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish Population

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to reveal a organization behind unlawful commercial enterprises because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurds in the Britain, they explain.

The two, who we are calling Ali and Saman, are Kurdish-origin reporters who have both resided legally in the UK for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish criminal operation was managing convenience stores, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of Britain, and sought to learn more about how it operated and who was taking part.

Prepared with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to buy and run a mini-mart from which to sell contraband tobacco products and vapes.

The investigators were successful to reveal how simple it is for a person in these situations to establish and operate a enterprise on the main street in full view. The individuals participating, we discovered, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to legally establish the operations in their names, helping to mislead the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also succeeded to covertly film one of those at the core of the organization, who stated that he could remove government fines of up to sixty thousand pounds faced those hiring illegal laborers.

"Personally wanted to participate in exposing these illegal operations [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't represent us," explains Saman, a ex- refugee applicant personally. The reporter entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having escaped from Kurdistan - a territory that covers the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at danger.

The journalists admit that conflicts over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could worsen tensions.

But the other reporter states that the illegal employment "harms the whole Kurdish-origin community" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

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

He explains this especially struck him when he realized that radical right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was occurring in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and flags could be seen at the rally, showing "we demand our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been monitoring online response to the inquiry from within the Kurdish-origin population and explain it has caused strong outrage for some. One social media message they spotted stated: "How can we identify and track [the undercover reporters] to attack them like animals!"

Another urged their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also encountered allegations that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "We are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish population," one reporter states. "Our objective is to reveal those who have harmed its reputation. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and extremely concerned about the activities of such persons."

The majority of those seeking asylum claim they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to an expert from the a refugee support organization, a non-profit that assists refugees and refugee applicants in the UK.

This was the scenario for our undercover journalist Saman, who, when he initially came to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He explains he had to survive on under £20 a week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now receive about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which includes meals, according to official policies.

"Practically speaking, this is not sufficient to maintain a respectable existence," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are generally prevented from employment, he thinks a significant number are open to being exploited and are essentially "obligated to work in the illegal market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the authorities said: "The government do not apologize for refusing to grant refugee applicants the permission to be employed - doing so would generate an motivation for individuals to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can require multiple years to be resolved with nearly a third taking over a year, according to official data from the spring this year.

Saman states working illegally in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been very simple to accomplish, but he explained to us he would never have done that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he encountered working in illegal convenience stores during his research seemed "disoriented", notably those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all their money to travel to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum rejected and now they've forfeited all they had."

The other reporter concurs that these people seemed hopeless.

"When [they] state you're prohibited to be employed - but additionally [you]