It has come to light that thousands of Afghans have migrated to the UK under a secret program that was established after a British officer unintentionally leaked their data which put them at risk of Taliban retaliation.
The previous Conservative administration implemented a relocation scheme, which involved thousands of people and was anticipated to cost the government around £850m, out of fear that individuals would be singled out by the Taliban.
The former Conservative government's Ministry of Defence claimed that a public revelation of the breach may expose people to the possibility of extrajudicial executions or severe Taliban violence, which led to the initial granting of the superinjunction in 2023.
But what exactly happened? Here’s everything we know.
What is the Afghan data breach?
The personal information of about 19,000 individuals who had requested to relocate to the UK following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was exposed in February 2022.
The names, contact information, and some family data of those who might be in danger from the Taliban were included in the leak.
The former Government became aware of the breach after part of the information surfaced on Facebook in August 2023.
Nine months later, a fresh resettlement program was established for persons on the leaked list, and 4,500 Afghans have arrived in the UK so far.
However, the relocations and the leak's existence were kept under wraps after the government secured a super-injunction to prevent it from going public.
The covert scheme, formally known as the Afghan Relocation Route, has already cost £400 million and is anticipated to cost another £400–450 million.
According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), 1,800 family members and 600 Afghan soldiers who were part of the leak are still in Afghanistan.
The scheme is being shut down, although relocation offers given to people who are still in Afghanistan will be taken care of.
Those whose details were leaked were only informed on Tuesday.
The revelation on Tuesday stems from the US force pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021, following which the Taliban regained control and swiftly surrounded the capital, Kabul.
The identities of applicants for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) program, which the UK government established to expedite the processing of applications by those who feared Taliban retaliation and relocate them to the UK, were among the leak's contents.
The administration said earlier this month that it had made payments to Afghans whose data had been exposed in a different data leak.
Who is responsible?
A unnamed MoD staff member committed the breach by mistake.
A spokesperson for Downing Street said they would not comment on specific individuals and would not clarify whether the official who leaked the information had been penalised.
However, Defence Secretary John Healey said the person involved in the leak was “no longer doing the same job”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has apologised on behalf of her party.
She told LBC: “Somebody made a terrible mistake and names were put out there... and we are sorry for that. That should not happen.”
However, Sir Ben Wallace has stated that he makes “no apology” for requesting an injunction to prevent the publication of information on Afghans who aided British forces.
A report on the leak would have “put in peril those we needed to help out” according to the former Tory defence secretary, who argued that the decision to file for the gagging order was “not a cover-up.”
