The Reasons Our Team Went Covert to Expose Criminal Activity in the Kurdish Population

Two Kurdish individuals agreed to go undercover to reveal a organization behind illegal commercial businesses because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurdish people in the UK, they state.

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

Investigators uncovered that a Kurdish criminal operation was operating small shops, hair salons and vehicle cleaning services the length of the UK, and aimed to discover more about how it worked and who was involved.

Armed with hidden cameras, Saman and Ali presented themselves as Kurdish asylum seekers with no permission to be employed, seeking to purchase and operate a small shop from which to sell contraband cigarettes and vapes.

The investigators were able to uncover how simple it is for someone in these circumstances to start and operate a business on the commercial area in full view. The individuals involved, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the operations in their identities, enabling to mislead the authorities.

Saman and Ali also succeeded to covertly record one of those at the core of the organization, who claimed that he could erase government sanctions of up to £60k imposed on those hiring illegal workers.

"Personally aimed to play a role in exposing these illegal activities [...] to say that they do not represent us," states Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the UK without authorization, having escaped from the Kurdish region - a area that spans the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not officially recognized as a country - because his safety was at threat.

The reporters admit that tensions over illegal immigration are significant in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the probe could intensify tensions.

But the other reporter explains that the illegal working "harms the whole Kurdish-origin population" and he believes driven to "bring it [the criminal network] out into the open".

Furthermore, Ali explains he was worried the coverage could be exploited by the far-right.

He says this especially struck him when he realized that far-right activist Tommy Robinson's national unity rally was occurring in the capital on one of the weekends he was working secretly. Placards and banners could be seen at the protest, showing "we demand our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media reaction to the investigation from inside the Kurdish population and explain it has caused intense outrage for certain individuals. One social media post they observed said: "How can we find and track [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"

A different demanded their families in the Kurdish region to be harmed.

They have also encountered claims that they were agents for the British government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not informants, and we have no intention of hurting the Kurdish population," one reporter explains. "Our goal is to uncover those who have damaged its image. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin identity and extremely concerned about the actions of such people."

Most of those applying for asylum claim they are escaping politically motivated discrimination, according to an expert from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that supports asylum seekers and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.

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

Refugee applicants now are provided approximately £49 a week - or nine pounds ninety-five if they are in housing which includes meals, according to government regulations.

"Honestly saying, this is not enough to maintain a respectable life," states Mr Avicil from the the organization.

Because asylum seekers are mostly restricted from working, he believes a significant number are vulnerable to being taken advantage of and are effectively "forced to labor in the black economy for as low as £3 per hour".

A official for the Home Office said: "We are unapologetic for denying refugee applicants the authorization to work - doing so would create an reason for people to travel to the United Kingdom without authorization."

Asylum cases can require multiple years to be processed with approximately a one-third taking more than 12 months, according to government figures from the spring this current year.

The reporter states working without authorization in a vehicle cleaning service, hair salon or mini-mart would have been extremely simple to accomplish, but he informed us he would not have participated in that.

Nevertheless, he states that those he interviewed laboring in unauthorized convenience stores during his investigation seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been rejected and who were in the appeals process.

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

Ali acknowledges that these individuals seemed in dire straits.

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