The programme, protected by a superinjunction, resettled at-risk Afghans, including those who helped UK forces, due to fears of Taliban retaliation after a data breach
Thousands of Afghans, including many who worked with British forces, have been secretly resettled in the UK after a leak of data on their identities raised fears that they could be targeted by the Taliban, the British government revealed on Tuesday.
The government now plans to close the secret route.
Defence Secretary John Healey said a data set containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to come to Britain after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was released in error in 2022, and extracts were later published online.
That prompted the then-Conservative government to set up a secret programme to resettle the Afghans. The government obtained a court order known as a superinjunction that barred anyone from revealing its existence.
The injunction was lifted on Tuesday in conjunction with a decision by Britain’s current Labour Party government to make the programme public. It said an independent review had found little evidence that the leaked data would expose Afghans to greater risk of retribution from the Taliban.
“I have felt deeply concerned about the lack of transparency to Parliament and the public,” Healey told lawmakers in the House of Commons.
About 4,500 people – 900 applicants and around 3,600 family members — have been brought to Britain under the secret programme, and about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a total cost of £850 million (US$1 billion).
About 36,000 more Afghans have been relocated to the UK under other resettlement routes.
The government is also facing lawsuits from those affected by the breach, further adding to the ultimate cost of the incident.
British troops were sent to Afghanistan as part of a deployment against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the wake of the September 11, attacks. At the peak of the operation, there were almost 10,000 British troops in the country, mostly in Helmand province in the south. Britain ended its Afghan combat operations in 2014.
