Latest news with #resettlement
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Lawyers seek to use ECHR to force UK into accepting thousands more Afghans
Lawyers are seeking to use human rights laws to force the Government to bring tens of thousands of Afghans to the UK after their names were leaked by a British soldier. Up to 100,000 people could claim against the Government, arguing that their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) have been breached because they are in danger of reprisals from the Taliban. A planned judicial review will argue that the Ministry of Defence's argument for closing the resettlement scheme for affected Afghans is false, and that anyone on the list of Afghans who helped British forces is at risk of death. However, MoD insiders say that for every genuine claimant on the list, 15 are bogus. Ministers already face a compensation bill of up to £1bn from those on the list, which the media was gagged from reporting until a super-injunction was lifted on Tuesday. Sean Humber, a partner at the firm Leigh Day, told The Telegraph: 'We are looking at possible legal avenues for judicial challenge for people who have been denied relocation and are now finding themselves on the list. 'They are now at an increased risk. As well as the compensation, it's a case of whether the Government should now take action.' Rejected applicants could be allowed in Lawyers are now set to argue that anyone on the list could be eligible for resettlement in the UK, even if they had no connection to Britain and their claim for resettlement was spurious. If successful, the judicial review could set a precedent to allow Afghans on the list who had been rejected for resettlement to come to Britain anyway. The legal basis for the challenge will be that the Rimmer review, which was commissioned to look at the scandal by Labour last year, wrongly concluded that the risk to Afghans on the list was low. It will argue that people whose names were leaked now face a threat to their human rights under article 2 and article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The articles give claimants a right to life and a right to freedom from degrading treatment or punishment, which lawyers could argue is at risk from the Taliban because of the British Government's mistake. Hermer would be called on to defend Government Any claims against the Government under the ECHR would ultimately be defended by Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, who has been accused of asserting the primacy of human rights law over British government and politics. The Labour peer previously represented Afghan families affected by alleged extrajudicial killings by the British military during the war. He has changed official guidance to instruct government lawyers to treat international law and domestic legislation equally. The spreadsheet, which was leaked by a Royal Marine in 2022, contained the names of 25,000 Afghans who had applied for resettlement in the UK because they had worked with British forces during the war in Afghanistan. Ministers have admitted that when families and other dependents are included, the true number of people affected is likely to be between 80,000 and 100,000. Around 6,900 of the Afghans on the list have either travelled to the UK or are in transit, but most were rejected for resettlement under either the original scheme or a new emergency plan to rescue those in danger because of the leak. Further legal restrictions on the data leak were lifted on Thursday, revealing that the identities of British special forces and MI6 operatives were also on the list. Johnny Mercer, the former defence minister, said it was 'gut-wrenching' to learn that their names 'may have fallen into [Taliban] hands'. However, The Telegraph has been told that the vast majority of claimants on the list were illegitimate. The admission raises fresh questions about whether bogus claimants slipped through the net and came to Britain under the secret scheme. Other officials, including one whistleblower who spoke to this newspaper, said the vetting of people on the scheme was poor. 'We simply cannot accommodate more Afghans' Danny Kruger, a Conservative MP who has raised concerns about the number of Afghans resettled in the UK, said any immigration decisions after the leak should be 'for the Government, not the courts'. 'Our communities simply cannot accommodate more Afghans, especially those who have been refused access to this country already,' he said. 'The result of this blunder by the MoD must not be further mass immigration driven by human rights lawyers.' Allowing tens of thousands more Afghans to enter the UK would frustrate Labour's attempt to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of the decade – a pledge that is already under extreme pressure from small boat crossings. The Telegraph revealed this week that Suella Braverman, the Conservative former home secretary, had been prepared to announce that asylum hotels would no longer be used but was forced to continue using them because of the resettled Afghans. Mrs Braverman was one of several Cabinet ministers who raised objections over the plan to secretly airlift thousands of Afghans to the UK. In a critical statement on Wednesday, she said: 'The state apparatus thinks it can hide its failures behind legal technicalities while ordinary people pay the price'. Despite legal restrictions being lifted, The Telegraph remains banned from reporting extra details around parliamentary statements about the breach, made by ministers and senior opposition frontbenchers alike. Along with other news outlets that challenged the super-injunction, this newspaper also remains prohibited from reporting what the MoD's internal risk assessments about the breach said at various points over the past two years. According to the Rimmer review into the leak, conducted by Paul Rimmer, the former deputy head of Defence Intelligence, the risk to the individuals named is now low enough for news of the leak to be published. Yet the public is not allowed to examine why – or how – Mr Rimmer's conclusion was so different from that of full-time professionals inside the MoD under the Conservatives. One defence official under the previous government said it was unclear how Mr Rimmer had been able to conclude that the Taliban would not seek reprisals against Afghans on the list. 'I haven't seen any shift from the Taliban to become friendly towards people who supported the UK Armed Forces,' they said. 'There was significant rationale for keeping the super-injunction and that was the threat to life.' After news of the leak broke, Taliban officials told The Telegraph they were already in possession of the list, and were in the process of hunting down Afghans on it.
France 24
6 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Afghan data breach unmasked UK spies, special forces: reports
The information was included in the mistakenly released spreadsheet, British newspapers reported, citing unnamed defence sources. The leak was only revealed to the public earlier this week after news blackout imposed by the previous Conservative government was finally lifted. The ministry of defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP. But reports in the British media, including the Guardian newspaper and BBC, said members of Britain's intelligence service and special forces were among those listed on the spreadsheet. Britain's government disclosed on Tuesday that a UK official had accidentally leaked a document containing the names and details of almost 19,000 Afghans who had asked to be relocated to the UK. It happened in February 2022, just six months after Taliban fighters seized Kabul, Labour's Defence Secretary John Healey told parliament. The breach and the resettlement plan to protect those involved from potential repercussions only came to light after a court-issued super-gag was lifted. The nearly two-year-long court ban secured by the previous Conservative government prevented any media reporting of the leak. In addition, parliament was not briefed and there was no public knowledge of the resettlement plan and the costs involved. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that Tory ministers have "serious questions to answer" over the secret resettlement plan while parliamentary Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said the affair raised significant constitutional issues". Some 900 Afghans and 3,600 family members have since been brought to Britain or are in transit under the programme known as the Afghan Response Route, at a cost of around £400 million ($535 million), Healey said. Applications from 600 more people have also been accepted, bringing the estimated total cost of the scheme to £850 million. They are among some 36,000 Afghans who have been accepted by Britain under different schemes since the August 2021 fall of Kabul.
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
British spies and special forces identities exposed in Afghan data leak
LONDON (AP) — A data leak that led thousands of Afghans to be resettled in the U.K. after their safety was jeopardized because they assisted forces against the Taliban also exposed the identities of British spies and special forces, news organizations reported Thursday. U.K. media reported that the names of more than 100 special forces troops, MI6 spies and military officers were part of the leak. A person with knowledge of the events confirmed to The Associated Press that 'a small number of special forces personnel' names were leaked. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive nature of the information. The revelation followed a London judge's order Tuesday to lift a so-called super injunction that prevented any reporting on an email inadvertently sent by a defense official in February 2022 that included personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to come to the U.K. The Afghans, who worked with Western forces as fixers, translators or served in the internationally backed Afghan army, applied under a program to bring some to the U.K. because they faced retribution. The British government only became aware of the leak when some of the data was posted on Facebook 18 months later by someone who threatened to publish the whole list. A secret program was then launched to relocate Afghans to the U.K. When High Court Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the rare and controversial super injunction, which also prevented reporting on existence of the injunction itself, he allowed information to be reported on the Afghans. Defense Secretary John Healey apologized Tuesday in Parliament on behalf of the British government and said a small number of names of people who supported the applications, including members of Parliament, senior military officers and government officials, were listed on the document. While Chamberlain lifted the super injunction, he had barred reporting that would show members of British forces and spies had also been on the list. Media groups sought a modification of the judge's order Thursday after The Sun tabloid, which was not a party to the case and not subject to the injunction, published information about the British identities being exposed. News of the blunder has become a scandal because the government went to the extreme lengths to hide it from the public while relocating thousands of people. Some 4,500 Afghans — 900 applicants and approximately 3,600 family members — have been brought to Britain under the program, and about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a total cost of about 850 million pounds ($1.1 billion). The government said it was closing the program after an independent review found little evidence the leaked data would expose Afghans to a greater risk of retribution from the Taliban. The review said the Taliban had other sources of information on those who had worked with the previous Afghan government and international forces. Critics, however, said thousands of people who helped British troops as interpreters or in other roles could be at risk of torture, imprisonment or death. Sean Humber, a lawyer who has represented Afghan claimants, said the 'catastrophic' data breach had caused 'anxiety, fear and distress' to those affected. Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban government of Afghanistan, said the supreme leader had declared a general amnesty for everyone that prevented anybody being arrested, killed, or targeted, he told The Associated Press. 'Intelligence agencies do not need to monitor such people, who have already been pardoned, and all documents and information related to them are available here,' he said in a WhatsApp message. 'Any rumors and gossip only serve to intimidate those individuals and cause fear and anxiety to their families.' British soldiers were sent to Afghanistan as part of an international deployment against al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At the peak of the operation, there were almost 10,000 U.K. troops in the country, mostly in Helmand province in the south. Britain ended combat operations in 2014, and its remaining troops left Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban swept back to power, two decades after they were ousted. The Taliban's return triggered chaotic scenes as Western nations rushed to evacuate citizens and Afghan employees.
The National
6 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Taliban denies arresting Afghans after UK data leak
The Taliban government said on Thursday it had neither arrested nor monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan after a data breach was revealed this week. Thousands of Afghans who had worked with the UK were brought to Britain with their families in a secret programme after a 2022 data breach put their lives at risk, the British government revealed on Tuesday. The scheme was revealed only after the UK High Court lifted a superinjunction order banning any reports of the events. UK Defence Minister John Healey said the leak was not revealed because of the risk that the Taliban authorities would obtain the data set and the lives of Afghans would be put at risk. "Nobody has been arrested for their past actions, nobody has been killed and nobody is being monitored for that," the Afghan government's deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said. "Reports of investigation and monitoring of a few people whose data has been leaked are false." After the Taliban swept back to power in Kabul in 2021, their Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada announced an amnesty for Afghans who worked for Nato forces or the ousted foreign-backed government during the two-decade conflict. "All their information and documents are present here in the Defence Ministry, Interior Ministry and Intelligence," Mr Fitrat added. "We don't need to use the leaked documents from Britain." He said "rumours" were being spread to create fear among Afghans and their families. The breach resulted in the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – by the previous government in April 2024. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people, including an estimated number of family members of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme applicants, were affected by the breach and could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data, UK judges said in June 2024 The scheme is understood to have cost about £400 million so far, with an estimated cost, once completed, of £850 million. Millions more are expected to be paid in legal costs and compensation. About 4,500 people, made up of 900 Arap applicants and an estimated 3,600 family members, have been brought to the UK or are in transit through the Afghanistan Response Route. They are among some 36,000 Afghans who have been accepted by Britain under various schemes since the August 2021 fall of Kabul. Tens of thousands of Afghans fled Afghanistan in a chaotic weeks-long evacuation when the Taliban insurgency was successful, after the mass withdrawal of international troops and air support to the country. Tens of thousands more have been resettled under European and US asylum schemes, which after four years have now declined to a virtual halt. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) said in 2023 there were credible reports of serious human rights violations by the Taliban authorities against hundreds of former government officials and ex-armed forces members. From the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 to June 30, 2023, Unama documented at least 800 instances of extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment and enforced disappearance, it said in a report. The Taliban's Foreign Ministry has denied the allegations and said all former employees had been pardoned. The Taliban government has imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law, under which women and girls are banned from most education and jobs. Former Conservative UK ministers have sought to defend their record after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said members of the previous government had 'serious questions to answer' about the Afghan data leak that resulted in an unprecedented superinjunction. Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he first learnt of the data breach, in which a defence official release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan, after a legal gagging order had been imposed. Former veterans minister Johnny Mercer claimed he had 'receipts' regarding the former Conservative administration's actions in relation to Kabul but said it was 'absurd' to accuse him of failing grasp the scale of crisis. 'I know who is covering their tracks and who has the courage to be honest,' he said. 'I would caution those who might attempt to rewrite history.' Former prime minister Liz Truss, who was foreign secretary at the time of the breach in February 2022, but a backbencher when the superinjunction was sought, said she was shocked by the 'cover-up'. She said the revelations indicated a 'huge betrayal of public trust' and 'those responsible in both governments and the bureaucracy need to be held to account'.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Afghan man reunited with family after four years apart
An Afghan man has said he has "no words to express how thankful" he is after being reunited with his wife and children after nearly four years Khan has been living in the south of England since 2021 after being resettled in the UK following his help to British troops in his home family escaped to neighbouring Pakistan where they lived in constant fear of deportation back to Taliban-controlled Khan's family arrived in the UK earlier this month following a lengthy campaign by Oxford-based charity Asylum Welcome and MP Olly Glover. The father-of-two thanked the pair for their "tireless efforts and unwavering support"."Their dedication and advocacy made a significant difference in our lives, and we are forever grateful for their kindness - we have no words to express how thankful we are," he said."...we can now build a new life together — free from fear and uncertainty, and with good education for our kids." He previously told the BBC he had assisted UK forces to source accommodation before Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, something he believed would make him and his family "enemies" of the current family was among those who became separated due to the speed and chaotic circumstances surrounding the evacuation of year, the 31-year-old engineer applied for the government's Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) for separated families."We are all celebrating Muhammad's family reunion, but it should never have taken so long," Dr Hari Reed, the joint CEO of Asylum Welcome, Mr Glover added: "I am extremely relieved that Mr Khan and his family are now together and are safe."Being left in limbo waiting for the Home Office to process their application... has been unimaginably stressful for my constituent and his family."It comes weeks after the government officially closed its two main resettlement pathways for Afghans - with no replacement in Home Office previously said it did not routinely comment on individual cases, but added that it was "working at pace" to process referrals. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
