Massive data leak saw 100,000 Afghans put in danger as thousands brought to UK

Thousands of Afghans are being secretly relocated to the UK after a shocking data leak led to 100,000 people being put at risk of death.

A catastrophic error led to a dataset containing the names of those who helped British forces being released in 2022, it can finally be reported. Extracts from this database appeared on Facebook around a year later - sparking fears it could be used by the Taliban to compile a "kill list".

A secret £850million scheme was set up after details of those who supported British forces were leaked, it can now be reported after an unprecedented superinjunction was lifted. Successive Governments spent billions of pounds covering it up, it is understood.

Defence Secretary John Healey is set to address MPs shortly. According to The Times a soldier inadvertantly sent a list containing tens of thousands of names while trying to verify applications for those fleeing the Taliban.

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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) only became aware of the breach over a year after the release - when excerpts were anonymously posted on Facebook in August 2023. An interim injunction prevents the media from reporting what was leaked.

The Times, which has been locked in a lengthy legal battle to lift the superinjuction, reports that an operation named Operation Rubific was launched to shut down the leak and prevent details becoming public.

It is estimated that £7billion of taxpayers' cash was set aside to deal with the aftermath of the catastrophic failure. A dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) was released "in error" in February 2022.

This led to a secret Afghan relocation scheme - the Afghanistan Response Route - being created over two years later, in April 2024. This is understood to have cost around £400million so far.

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