Why We Went Undercover to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish men agreed to operate secretly to expose a network behind illegal High Street businesses because the wrongdoers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the Britain, they explain.

The two, who we are referring to as Ali and Saman, are Kurdish journalists who have both lived legally in the UK for a long time.

The team uncovered that a Kurdish illegal enterprise was running small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of the United Kingdom, and aimed to learn more about how it operated and who was involved.

Equipped with secret cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish-origin refugee applicants with no right to work, seeking to buy and run a convenience store from which to distribute illegal cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

The investigators were able to reveal how straightforward it is for a person in these conditions to establish and manage a enterprise on the main street in public view. Those involved, we found, pay Kurds who have British citizenship to register the operations in their names, helping to deceive the officials.

Saman and Ali also were able to secretly record one of those at the centre of the organization, who asserted that he could erase official sanctions of up to £60,000 imposed on those employing unauthorized workers.

"I wanted to contribute in exposing these unlawful operations [...] to say that they do not speak for Kurdish people," says Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the United Kingdom without authorization, having fled Kurdistan - a area that spans the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not globally acknowledged as a state - because his well-being was at danger.

The reporters admit that tensions over unauthorized immigration are significant in the UK and state they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame tensions.

But the other reporter states that the unauthorized employment "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he believes obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali explains he was worried the coverage could be used by the far-right.

He says this especially impressed him when he discovered that far-right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity protest was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was operating secretly. Signs and banners could be observed at the protest, showing "we demand our nation back".

The reporters have both been observing online reaction to the exposé from within the Kurdish population and explain it has sparked intense outrage for certain individuals. One social media comment they found said: "In what way can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to attack them like dogs!"

A different urged their families in the Kurdish region to be attacked.

They have also seen accusations that they were spies for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurdish people. "We are not informants, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish community," Saman states. "Our goal is to expose those who have harmed its reputation. Both journalists are honored of our Kurdish-origin identity and profoundly worried about the activities of such people."

The majority of those applying for refugee status say they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the situation for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he initially came to the UK, struggled for years. He explains he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

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

"Practically speaking, this is not enough to support a dignified life," explains the expert from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are generally prevented from working, he thinks many are susceptible to being exploited and are effectively "compelled to work in the black market for as low as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the government department said: "The government are unapologetic for not granting asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - doing so would generate an incentive for people to come to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can take years to be decided with almost a one-third taking over 12 months, according to official figures from the spring this year.

Saman says being employed without authorization in a car wash, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely straightforward to achieve, but he explained to the team he would never have engaged in that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he encountered working in unauthorized convenience stores during his investigation seemed "disoriented", especially those whose asylum claim has been denied and who were in the appeal stage.

"They expended all their funds to migrate to the UK, they had their refugee application denied and now they've lost their entire investment."

The other reporter acknowledges that these people seemed hopeless.

"If [they] declare you're forbidden to work - but also [you]