The Reasons We Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish-background individuals consented to work covertly to expose a network behind illegal High Street businesses because the criminals are negatively affecting the standing of Kurdish people in the Britain, they state.

The pair, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish investigators who have both resided legally in the UK for many years.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was running small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services throughout the UK, and sought to find out more about how it worked and who was taking part.

Armed with covert recording devices, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to work, attempting to buy and run a small shop from which to sell illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to discover how easy it is for someone in these circumstances to establish and operate a business on the commercial area in public view. The individuals participating, we learned, pay Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to register the enterprises in their identities, enabling to fool the authorities.

Ali and Saman also managed to covertly film one of those at the core of the network, who stated that he could erase official fines of up to sixty thousand pounds imposed on those using illegal workers.

"Personally wanted to contribute in uncovering these illegal operations [...] to declare that they do not represent Kurdish people," explains Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman came to the UK without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a territory that covers the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his life was at risk.

The reporters acknowledge that tensions over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and state they have both been worried that the investigation could intensify hostilities.

But the other reporter states that the illegal labor "damages the entire Kurdish-origin population" and he believes obligated to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, the journalist says he was anxious the reporting could be seized upon by the radical right.

He says this especially struck him when he realized that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was occurring in London on one of the weekends he was working covertly. Signs and banners could be observed at the gathering, reading "we demand our country returned".

The reporters have both been tracking online reaction to the inquiry from inside the Kurdish community and report it has generated intense outrage for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they spotted read: "How can we locate and find [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

Another called for their relatives in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also encountered claims that they were informants for the UK authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no intention of damaging the Kurdish-origin population," one reporter says. "Our objective is to reveal those who have damaged its standing. We are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly troubled about the activities of such individuals."

The majority of those applying for refugee status claim they are fleeing politically motivated persecution, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that assists asylum seekers and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first came to the United Kingdom, faced difficulties for many years. He says he had to survive on less than twenty pounds a per week while his refugee application was processed.

Asylum seekers now receive approximately £49 a per week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which includes meals, according to Home Office policies.

"Honestly saying, this is not adequate to sustain a respectable life," says the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are largely restricted from working, he believes numerous are susceptible to being manipulated and are practically "forced to work in the unofficial market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A representative for the Home Office said: "We do not apologize for refusing to grant refugee applicants the right to be employed - doing so would establish an reason for individuals to migrate to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Refugee cases can take a long time to be decided with nearly a one-third requiring over a year, according to government statistics from the end of March this year.

Saman explains working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been quite easy to do, but he told us he would never have engaged in that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he encountered employed in unauthorized convenience stores during his research seemed "lost", especially those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.

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

Ali agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] say you're not allowed to work - but simultaneously [you]