Thousands of Afghans have been secretly relocated to the UK after a data leak by the British military revealed their identities and raised fears that they could be targeted by the Taliban.
A dataset containing the details of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to the UK after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was released in error in 2022, and parts of it were later published online, British Defence Secretary John Healey said on Tuesday.
That prompted the previous Conservative government to establish a secret programme to resettle the Afghans — many of whom worked with British forces — and their families.
The Afghanistan Response Route, set up in April 2024, was made public on Tuesday after the UK's current Labour government lifted a legal ruling known as a superinjunction that had been obtained by the former government in order to keep the scheme secret.
About 4,500 people — 900 applicants and approximately 3,600 family members — have been brought to the UK under the programme, and about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a total cost of £850 million (€979 million).
However, the ultimate cost of the incident is expected to be higher as the British government is also facing litigation from people affected by the breach.
Healey offered a "sincere apology" for the data breach in a statement to lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon, and said that he had felt "deeply concerned about the lack of transparency" around the breach.
"No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner," he said.
'Incredibly serious data breach'
The blunder by an unnamed official at the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was a "serious departmental error" and a result of a spreadsheet being emailed "outside of authorised government systems" in early 2022, according to Healey.
The spreadsheet contained the details of 18,714 Afghan nationals who had been trying to apply to a British government scheme to support those who helped or worked with UK forces in Afghanistan that were fighting the Taliban between 2001 and 2021.
The MoD only became aware of the breach in August 2023, after the excerpts of the database posted on Facebook, according to British media reports.
Barings Law, a law firm that is representing hundreds of the victims, accused the government of trying to conceal the truth from the public.
"This is an incredibly serious data breach, which the Ministry of Defence has repeatedly tried to hide from the British public," said Adnan Malik, head of data protection at the firm.
"It involved the loss of personal and identifying information about Afghan nationals who have helped British forces to defeat terrorism and support security and stability in the region."
About 36,000 Afghans in total have been relocated to the UK under various resettlement routes since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, according to the ministry of defence.
In the summer of 2021, the US decided to lead a withdrawal of western forces — including British troops — from Afghanistan, which allowed the Taliban to seize power.
That left tens of thousands of people who had helped the UK and other nations during 20 years of western military presence in the nation at risk of retribution from the Taliban.
