Defence official’s data blunder forced UK to secretly relocate thousands of Afghans

A UK Defence official’s data blunder disclosed the names of many who worked with armed forces and forced the British government to secretly relocate thousands of Afghans.

British armed forces work with the US military to evacuate eligible civilians and their families out of Afghanistan on August 21, 2021. Picture: via Getty Images

The UK government set up a secret project to relocate thousands of Afghans to Britain, after a defence official accidentally disclosed a list containing the personal information of 18,700 Afghans who had requested to flee their homeland, putting them at risk of reprisals by the Taliban.

The government went to great lengths to keep the mistake and its ramifications secret, including acquiring a rare court injunction banning all reporting on the matter in 2023, after it argued that disclosing the existence of the list would alert the Taliban. Reporting restrictions were lifted by a judge on Tuesday after a government review concluded that the risk to the Afghans named was now less acute.

A full flight of 265 people evacuated out of Kabul by the UK Armed Forces on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Picture: Ben Shread/MoD Crown

Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the UK government put in place a program to relocate Afghans who worked with British armed forces during the conflict there. In 2022, a spreadsheet with 33,000 rows of information outlining these people’s personal details was emailed erroneously to Afghans in Britain by an official working at the UK Ministry of Defence.

In 2023, snippets of that spreadsheet appeared in a Facebook chat room. The government set up a secret immigration route to get those affected and their families to the UK, fearing they faced torture or other retributions. The Ministry of Defence said in closed court last year that up to 100,000 people could be targeted by the Taliban as a result of the leak.

Taliban fighters in a vehicle patrol the streets of Kabul in August 2021. Picture: AFP

Some 20,000 people affected by the data breach, including family members of those who worked for the UK military, have been offered relocation, according to court documents made public on Tuesday. The documents said the cost of relocating and housing the individuals in Britain could run into the billions of pounds.

The Ministry of Defence said 6900 people qualified to come to the UK under this immigration program and would not have been admitted through other existing asylum routes.

“We sincerely apologise for this data incident,” the Ministry of Defence said. It added that the list, which contained the names, and in some cases addresses, of people in Afghanistan and even British military officers, hasn’t been used to its knowledge by “others who might seek to exploit the information”. An independent government review by former UK civil servant Paul Rimmer concluded that “it will never be possible to determine with absolute certainty that the breach has been ‘contained’.”

UK Defence Secretary John Healey. Picture: PRU / AFP

UK Defence Secretary John Healey told parliament the relocation program triggered by the leak would cost £800m ($1.6bn) and blamed a “serious departmental error.” He said the government had installed new software to securely hold that information.

Some 5400 people were still awaiting entry to the UK as a result of the leak and, after they were admitted, this immigration route would be closed, the government said.

The Wall Street Journal