The Reasons Our Team Chose to Go Undercover to Reveal Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Community

A pair of Kurdish-background men consented to work covertly to uncover a organization behind illegal commercial establishments because the criminals are damaging the standing of Kurdish people in the Britain, they say.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish-linked illegal enterprise was managing convenience stores, barbershops and car washes throughout Britain, and wanted to find out more about how it functioned and who was taking part.

Armed with secret cameras, Ali and Saman presented themselves as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no authorization to be employed, seeking to purchase and manage a convenience store from which to sell contraband cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.

They were successful to reveal how easy it is for a person in these conditions to start and manage a commercial operation on the High Street in full view. Those involved, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have British citizenship to register the enterprises in their names, helping to fool the government agencies.

Ali and Saman also were able to secretly film one of those at the heart of the operation, who claimed that he could eliminate government sanctions of up to sixty thousand pounds encountered those hiring unauthorized laborers.

"Personally aimed to contribute in exposing these unlawful activities [...] to declare that they do not speak for Kurdish people," states Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the country without authorization, having fled the Kurdish region - a region that spans the boundaries of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at threat.

The investigators admit that tensions over illegal migration are significant in the United Kingdom and state they have both been worried that the inquiry could intensify tensions.

But the other reporter says that the illegal employment "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he feels obligated to "reveal it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, the journalist mentions he was worried the coverage could be used by the extreme right.

He states this notably affected him when he realized that extreme right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march was taking place in the capital on one of the Saturdays and Sundays he was working covertly. Placards and flags could be spotted at the protest, displaying "we demand our nation back".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media feedback to the investigation from inside the Kurdish population and report it has sparked significant outrage for some. One Facebook post they spotted said: "How can we find and locate [the undercover reporters] to harm them like dogs!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be harmed.

They have also encountered allegations that they were informants for the British authorities, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no aim of damaging the Kurdish population," Saman explains. "Our aim is to expose those who have harmed its standing. Both journalists are proud of our Kurdish identity and extremely troubled about the actions of such people."

Most of those applying for asylum state they are fleeing politically motivated discrimination, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the a charitable organization, a organization that assists asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

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 states he had to survive on under £20 a per week while his asylum claim was processed.

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

"Realistically speaking, this isn't sufficient to sustain a acceptable existence," says the expert from the the organization.

Because refugee applicants are mostly prohibited from employment, he feels a significant number are susceptible to being taken advantage of and are practically "forced to labor in the illegal economy for as low as three pounds per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated: "We make no apology for denying asylum seekers the authorization to be employed - granting this would create an motivation for people to come to the United Kingdom illegally."

Asylum applications can take years to be resolved with approximately a 33% requiring over 12 months, according to official statistics from the end of March this current year.

The reporter says being employed illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been quite easy to achieve, but he explained to the team he would never have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he says that those he met employed in unauthorized convenience stores during his work seemed "lost", particularly those whose refugee application has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"These individuals used all of their savings to migrate to the United Kingdom, they had their refugee application denied and now they've lost everything."

Ali concurs that these individuals seemed hopeless.

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