‘When that data falls into the hands of the Taliban it will lead to my arrest, torture and death'

The Guardian

16-07-2025

Here are the voices of Afghans whose details were included in a 2022 data leak, which was made public on Tuesday after a superinjunction was lifted. All names have been changed.
Azizullah
I worked with UK and coalition forces as an interpreter in Helmand and Kandahar for more than a decade.
When I read the email on the morning of 15 July, I froze. It felt like my blood had turned to ice. Finding that the UK government had accidentally leaked the names and details of people like me – Afghans who had worked with British forces, who had trusted them, and who are now living in fear because of that trust.
The first thing that flashed through my mind wasn't myself. It was my family. My mother, my brother, my sister, they're in Turkey right now, waiting. We've been waiting for four years under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), sending email after email, holding on to the promise that the UK would not abandon us. And now this. This breach. This betrayal.
I am the one handing their paperwork and the only one aware until now about this leak. I still haven't told them. How can I? My family has already lived through enough trauma. If I tell them what's happened, I'm terrified of what it will do to them, not just emotionally, but physically. They will break. I know it.
And it's not just them. My aunt and her children are still in Afghanistan. They've worked extensively with ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) earlier and later, the coalition forces – UK and US troops both. They are in hiding now. If they are found, they will die. There is no question. We are not talking about hypothetical risk. We are talking about people being hunted, arrested, tortured, killed. And it's happening now.
They are going to die in that hell unless someone acts. And let me be clear: it is only the UK government's responsibility to save them. This is their mistake. They owe us our lives.
Naser
I worked alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan – not just as an interpreter but also on security projects. When the chaos erupted at Abbey Gate in August 2021, I held a laissez-passer, but still, I couldn't get on any evacuation flights. Since then, I've applied again and again to the US, UK, and EU governments for help. I even risked travelling to Pakistan, waiting there for over a year with no income and constant fear. Others working with me were relocated to Germany from Pakistan. I waited and watched as one by one many of my colleagues left. But life there (Pakistan) was unbearable, and I chose to come back to Kabul, because nowhere else treated us well.
I didn't even know that emails were sent yesterday. My brother got one and told me. The emails we sent with our requests over the years, our files, contained our pictures taken alongside Nato troops, our home addresses, and details of the security projects we worked on. All the information that could help us relocate was sent out. I'm terrified. How can anyone be this careless with our lives? The Taliban has been actively hunting down those who worked with UK forces. I'm not angry! I am ashamed that I put my children's lives at risk for a foreign power.
My family and I have been detained multiple times over the years – my brothers, my cousins and me. Back then, at least, I hoped the Taliban didn't know everything about our past. But now? How do we protect ourselves if they suddenly produce a list? What if we deny it and they show us the proof in front of our eyes?
The last 24 hours have been unbearable. Some people have received invitations from the UK government since 2022, but not us. It feels like we've been forgotten. I'm begging the UK government: don't only help those stuck in Pakistan and Iran; please help those of us you worked with who are trapped here in Afghanistan. My children, my elderly mother – they only have me. Most of my family members have already left for other countries. I am here. I'm scared and lost.
They (UK authorities) told us not to reply to emails, but to use the portal instead. Four years of waiting, and still no help. What hope do we have now? We lost everything in Pakistan – our savings, our dignity. Now, with no money and no evacuation flights, neighbours pushing us out, I wonder: are we not human? Don't we deserve help?
Sameem
I was granted refugee status in the UK in 2013 and I have since worked as a freelance interpreter for the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defence, which included training British soldiers. My wife joined me in the UK and I applied to relocate my family – my father, brother, sisters – through the Arap [Afghan relocations and assistance policy] scheme but I was told they were not eligible.
But my family are at high risk in Afghanistan because of their jobs. My father was a prosecutor for the Afghan government for many years. The Taliban killed one of my brothers in 2011 and another was shot dead in front of his two children in 2021. My family has been living in hiding since the fall of Kabul.
Yesterday [Tuesday], I received an email from the UK government stating that my data might have been leaked. They provided me with a link to a self-checker and it showed that it had. It's really concerning and frustrating because it means the Taliban can easily target my family now.
I replied to the email saying: 'My family were at high risk back home in Afghanistan and you didn't help to relocate them, but now you've shared their data. If anything happens to them, who will take responsibility for that?' They haven't replied to my email.
Sign up to First Edition
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
The British government must now take responsibility for this breach of data. I've already lost two members of my family. I don't want to lose more.
Shah
I know my name is on the list that was leaked because I was notified by the UK government that my details were compromised in a Ministry of Defence data breach. My family and I, living in Afghanistan, now face an imminent threat to our lives because of this breach. I believe that when that data falls into the hands of the Taliban it will lead to my arrest, torture and death. After the Taliban took over, I went into hiding because I had an important role in the courts bringing Taliban terrorists captured by the British to justice.
Family members have been interrogated by the Taliban to try to get them to give information about where I'm hiding, so it is now too dangerous for me to have any contact with them. I have moved into a safe house because of the danger I'm in.
In the spring of 2023, the Taliban's interest in me increased. I believe this may be linked to the data breach. They tracked down my family but I wasn't at home because I was hiding somewhere else. Since then many members of my family have been interrogated about my whereabouts. Contrary to what the British government is saying, I don't believe the Taliban has ever lost interest in me. The worst part of all this is not knowing until this week that my name was on a leaked database that the Taliban may have had access to.
Ahmad
I was on my way to a doctor's appointment to seek treatment for a stress-related illness when the email from the UK government appeared in my inbox. I felt awful. I was already under immense stress due to my family's situation, but this made things worse.
Between 2016 to August 2021 I worked with NDS-D011, a unit of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) that was supported by British intelligence. After the fall of Kabul and my evacuation to the UK in 2021, I submitted the personal details of my immediate family – including my parents, two sisters, and three brothers – to the Ministry of Defence as part of a family reunification application.
Despite over three years passing, neither I, nor any of my approximately 120 colleagues who also relocated to the UK, have succeeded in bringing our families to safety. I am part of a group chat with these individuals, and yesterday [Tuesday], 65 others reported receiving the same email acknowledging the data breach.
Last night, we all contacted our families and warned them to take extra safety precautions. None of our relatives can live freely or safely in Afghanistan. Two of my former colleagues who were unable to flee the country were arrested by the Taliban about eight months ago and remain imprisoned. The Taliban consider anyone who worked with foreign governments a traitor and punish them accordingly. Can these governments guarantee that the Taliban will stay on their promise not to target our families?