News Agency
A pair of Kurdish-background individuals agreed to operate secretly to uncover a network behind unlawful main street businesses because the lawbreakers are negatively affecting the standing of Kurds in the Britain, they say.
The two, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish-origin investigators who have both resided legally in the UK for years.
The team found that a Kurdish-linked criminal operation was operating small shops, barbershops and car washes throughout the United Kingdom, and aimed to find out more about how it worked and who was involved.
Prepared with secret cameras, Ali and Saman posed as Kurdish-origin asylum seekers with no right to work, attempting to purchase and manage a mini-mart from which to sell illegal tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.
They were successful to uncover how simple it is for a person in these circumstances to set up and run a enterprise on the main street in full view. Those participating, we discovered, compensate Kurdish individuals who have UK residency to register the businesses in their identities, enabling to deceive the authorities.
Saman and Ali also succeeded to discreetly document one of those at the centre of the operation, who asserted that he could remove official fines of up to £60k encountered those employing illegal employees.
"I aimed to play a role in uncovering these unlawful activities [...] to declare that they don't characterize us," says Saman, a ex- asylum seeker himself. The reporter entered the United Kingdom illegally, having fled the Kurdish region - a area that straddles the borders of multiple Middle Eastern countries but which is not officially recognized as a nation - because his safety was at danger.
The reporters admit that disagreements over unauthorized migration are elevated in the United Kingdom and explain they have both been anxious that the inquiry could inflame conflicts.
But Ali says that the unauthorized working "negatively affects the whole Kurdish population" and he believes compelled to "expose it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".
Additionally, the journalist mentions he was worried the publication could be exploited by the radical right.
He states this especially impressed him when he discovered that radical right campaigner a prominent activist's national unity march was happening in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover. Placards and flags could be observed at the protest, reading "we want our country returned".
Both journalists have both been observing online feedback to the exposé from inside the Kurdish community and explain it has generated strong frustration for certain individuals. One Facebook comment they observed read: "In what way can we identify and locate [the undercover reporters] to kill them like animals!"
Another urged their relatives in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.
They have also read allegations that they were agents for the UK government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "Both of us are not spies, and we have no desire of hurting the Kurdish-origin community," one reporter explains. "Our objective is to expose those who have harmed its standing. We are proud of our Kurdish-origin heritage and deeply concerned about the activities of such persons."
The majority of those applying for refugee status say they are fleeing politically motivated oppression, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association, a non-profit that supports refugees and refugee applicants in the United Kingdom.
This was the scenario for our undercover journalist one investigator, who, when he initially arrived to the UK, struggled for many years. He says he had to survive on less than £20 a week while his refugee application was considered.
Refugee applicants now are provided approximately forty-nine pounds a per week - or £9.95 if they are in housing which includes meals, according to official policies.
"Honestly saying, this is not enough to maintain a dignified lifestyle," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.
Because asylum seekers are generally prohibited from working, he feels many are susceptible to being manipulated and are effectively "forced to work in the unofficial economy for as little as three pounds per hourly rate".
A spokesperson for the government department said: "The government make no apology for refusing to grant asylum seekers the authorization to work - granting this would generate an incentive for individuals to travel to the UK illegally."
Asylum applications can require years to be resolved with approximately a third requiring more than 12 months, according to government data from the end of March this year.
Saman says working illegally in a vehicle cleaning service, barbershop or mini-mart would have been extremely easy to do, but he told us he would never have done that.
Nevertheless, he says that those he interviewed working in illegal convenience stores during his investigation seemed "lost", notably those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the legal challenge.
"They used their entire funds to come to the United Kingdom, they had their asylum denied and now they've lost everything."
Ali concurs that these individuals seemed in dire straits.
"When [they] declare you're forbidden to work - but simultaneously [you]
