What we know about the secret Afghan relocation scheme

The Guardian

15-07-2025

Details have emerged for the first time of an enormous accidental data breach by a British official in 2022 that put 100,000 Afghans at risk of torture and death, and the huge efforts by successive governments to keep the blunder secret, citing the risk of Taliban reprisals.
Thousands of Afghan people – some of whom had worked with British forces in the country – have been secretly relocated to the UK as a direct result of the leak, at an additional cost of more than £850m.
The breach has been subject to a superinjunction since August 2023, meaning journalists were banned from disclosing anything about it – or even the fact that an injunction existed.
The superinjunction, which is the first ever requested by a British government and the longest in history, was lifted by the high court on Tuesday, which is why details of the leak and response can now be revealed.
The leak in February 2022 was the result of an error by a defence official, who had been tasked with verifying applications to the Afghanistan Resettlement and Assistance Policy (Arap) resettlement scheme, designed for Afghans who had worked for British forces in the country.
Working outside authorised government systems, he contacted a number of Afghans in the UK, believing he was sending a list of 150 names. Instead, he had emailed a copy of the entire list of applicants, from where it was passed on to others in Afghanistan.
The Times reported the official was a British soldier based at Regent's Park barracks, the headquarters of the UK special forces.
The leaked dataset contained the personal details of 18,800 individuals who were applying for resettlement along with their family members, including their phone numbers and in some cases addresses, amounting to 33,000 lines of data. Some emails of British government officials were also disclosed.
It was discovered in August 2023 by an activist who was helping Afghans who had worked for UK forces. One of her contacts alerted her in alarm saying that an anonymous member of a Facebook group had said he had the database and was threatening to post it in full.
She immediately contacted the MoD, saying: 'The Taliban may now have a 33,000-long kill list – essentially provided to them by the British government. If any of these families are murdered, the government will be liable.' The discovery was 'simply bone-chilling', she wrote.
The realisation sparked panic in Whitehall, and an immediate hunt for the source of the leak. At the same time, UK officials contacted 1,800 Arap applicants in Pakistan warning them that they might be in danger.
The MoD asked Facebook to remove the post, citing the 'risk of physical harm'. It then launched a top secret initiative, named Operation Rubific, to secretly evacuate to the UK those deemed most at risk of Taliban assassination – although tens of thousands would be left behind.
After a number of journalists became aware of the leak within days of its disclosure to the MoD, Ben Wallace, then the defence secretary, asked the high court for an order banning any mention of the breach.
On 1 September 2023 the judge Mr Justice Knowles granted a three-month
superinjunction 'against the world', rather than named individuals, the first of its kind. Another judge extended it the following February, saying there was a 'real possibility that it is serving to protect' those named in the leaked database.
However he cautioned: 'What is clear is that the government has decided to offer help to only a very small proportion of those whose lives have been endangered by the data incident and that the decisions in this regard are being taken without any opportunity for scrutiny through the media or in parliament.'
The injuction was later extended further, despite challenges from four media organisations. The government cited concerns of retribution from the Taliban against those named.
In December 2023 a covert new scheme called the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), was set up to evacuate to the UK some individuals on the list who were ineligible for Arap. Though it was initially set up to resettle around 200 'principals' and their families, to date 900 individuals and 3,600 family members have been brought to Britain or are in transit via ARR, at a cost of £400m.
Taking into account the wider schemes, other official figures show that so far the government has relocated 35,245 Afghans to Britain, of whom 16,156 were among those affected by the data leak.
The present defence minister, John Healey, had been briefed on the leak while in opposition, but said on Tuesday that other cabinet members had only become aware of the situation after Labour was elected to government in July 2024.
On taking office he 'began straightway to take a hard look at the policy complexities, costs, risks, court hearings and the range of Afghan relocation schemes being run across government', he told parliament on Tuesday.
In January, he commissioned a former senior civil servant, Paul Rimmer, to conduct an independent review. He concluded that, nearly four years into Taliban rule of Afghanistan, the leaked data 'may not have spread nearly as widely as initially feared', and 'there is little evidence of intent by the Taliban to conduct a campaign of retribution' against those on the leaked list.
The review concluded that the ARR scheme 'may now be disproportionate to the actual impact of the data loss'.
As a result, the government told the high court on Tuesday that the superinjunction should be discontinued. In his ruling, Mr Justice Chamberlain described the cost of the plans as amounting to 'the sort of money which makes a material difference to government spending plans and is normally the stuff of political debate'.
The ARR has now closed, Healey told MPs, although he said 600 'invitations' that had already been granted to individuals and their families would be honoured. 'When this nation makes a promise, we should keep it,' he said.
He also offered 'a sincere apology on behalf of the British government', which was echoed by the Conservative shadow defence minister, James Cartlidge.
MoD figures published on Tuesday show that across several Afghan resettlement schemes, the numbers of those who have already come to the UK and those who have not yet travelled total 56,100 people, including family members.
The estimated total cost of all resettlement schemes is now £5.5-6bn. The covert ARR scheme set up specifically in response to the leak is expected to cost £850m.