The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Covert to Uncover Crime in the Kurdish-origin Population

A pair of Kurdish men consented to work covertly to uncover a operation behind unlawful main street enterprises because the criminals are negatively affecting the reputation of Kurdish people in the Britain, they explain.

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

Investigators discovered that a Kurdish criminal operation was managing mini-marts, barbershops and car washes the length of the United Kingdom, and sought to find out more about how it operated and who was participating.

Equipped with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish refugee applicants with no right to work, attempting to acquire and manage a mini-mart from which to trade illegal cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were successful to uncover how straightforward it is for an individual in these conditions to start and manage a enterprise on the main street in public view. Those involved, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK citizenship to register the operations in their identities, helping to fool the officials.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly film one of those at the core of the network, who asserted that he could eliminate official sanctions of up to £60k faced those employing unauthorized workers.

"I sought to participate in uncovering these illegal practices [...] to loudly proclaim that they don't characterize Kurdish people," says Saman, a ex- asylum seeker personally. Saman entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a territory that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a state - because his well-being was at threat.

The investigators acknowledge that disagreements over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and say they have both been anxious that the probe could intensify hostilities.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal working "damages the whole Kurdish population" and he considers compelled to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Separately, Ali says he was concerned the reporting could be used by the extreme right.

He explains this especially struck him when he discovered that far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson's national unity march was taking place in London on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was operating undercover. Placards and banners could be observed at the protest, showing "we want our nation returned".

Both journalists have both been observing social media response to the inquiry from within the Kurdish community and explain it has caused significant anger for certain individuals. One social media comment they spotted stated: "How can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

One more urged their families in Kurdistan to be attacked.

They have also read allegations that they were informants for the UK authorities, and traitors to other Kurdish people. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish community," one reporter says. "Our goal is to reveal those who have damaged its image. We are honored of our Kurdish identity and profoundly concerned about the behavior of such people."

Most of those seeking asylum claim they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a refugee support organization, a organization that assists refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the scenario for our covert reporter one investigator, who, when he first arrived to the UK, experienced challenges for many years. He states he had to survive on under twenty pounds a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

Refugee applicants now receive about £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in accommodation which offers meals, according to government policies.

"Practically speaking, this is not adequate to sustain a acceptable life," states the expert from the RWCA.

Because refugee applicants are mostly restricted from working, he believes a significant number are open to being taken advantage of and are practically "obligated to work in the black market for as little as three pounds per hour".

A official for the government department said: "The government are unapologetic for denying refugee applicants the right to be employed - granting this would establish an incentive for individuals to come to the UK illegally."

Asylum applications can take multiple years to be decided with nearly a 33% requiring over 12 months, according to government figures from the late March this year.

Saman says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely simple to achieve, but he explained to the team he would never have done that.

Nonetheless, he says that those he encountered working in illegal mini-marts during his work seemed "disoriented", especially those whose refugee application has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

"They spent all their money to come to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application rejected and now they've sacrificed everything."

Ali agrees that these people seemed hopeless.

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