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| Taliban members celebrated the third anniversary of Kabul's capture at Bagram Airbase, Afghanistan, |
Following a significant data breach that exposed the personal information of over 33,000 Afghan citizens, a UK government official inadvertently put them at risk of Taliban reprisals. In response, the United Kingdom initiated a covert operation to resettle thousands of Afghans in the country, according to court documents made public on Tuesday, based on a ruling by a London High Court judge in May 2024.The documents revealed that approximately 20,000 Afghans may need to be granted asylum in the UK, with potential costs reaching several billion pounds. UK Defence Secretary John Healey informed Parliament that around 4,500 individuals have either arrived or are en route to the UK under the “Afghan Response Route” program, costing approximately £400 million (about $540 million USD). The data breach, which occurred in 2022, involved the personal details of nearly 19,000 Afghan citizens and their families who had applied for asylum in the UK. The breach was only discovered in August 2023 when part of the data appeared on Facebook. In response, the UK’s then-Conservative government secured a court injunction in September 2023 to prevent further dissemination. Initially, in 2023, the UK Ministry of Defence issued a “super-injunction” to suppress the leak, citing the risk of extrajudicial killings or severe violence by the Taliban. The injunction was recently lifted, allowing details of the secret resettlement program to come to light. The breach included the identities of Afghans who had collaborated with British forces before their withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 amid chaotic circumstances. Affected individuals have filed lawsuits against the UK government. A Ministry of Defence review reported that, as of May 2024, over 16,000 affected Afghans had been relocated to the UK. Defence Secretary Healey expressed regret, stating, “This data breach should never have happened.” He confirmed that the “Afghan Response Route” program has now been discontinued. Additionally, around 36,000 other Afghans have been resettled in the UK through separate programs. The UK deployed around 10,000 troops to Afghanistan as part of the US-led “war on terror” following the September 11, 2001, attacks. A review by the current centre-left government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which came to power in July 2024, found no specific evidence of organized Taliban reprisals, despite Afghanistan remaining a high-risk environment.
