Following a High Court decision that lifted a gag order that had been in place for a year, it was revealed on Tuesday that hundreds of Afghans had been secretly relocated to the United Kingdom as a result of a serious security breach committed by a British government official.
The personal information of about 19,000 Afghans who had requested to move to the UK after the Taliban regained power in August 2021 was made public by the February 2022 breach.
Names, contact information, and family information were among the private material; many of the individuals were vulnerable to Taliban retaliation because of their prior connections to foreign troops.
After pieces of the compromised data were found circulating on Facebook in August 2023, the UK government became aware of the hack.
In response, British officials quietly established a new program, officially known as the Afghan Relocation Route, which has helped 4,500 Afghans migrate to the UK.
A sweeping super-injunction, a unique judicial tool that forbade media outlets from covering the story and from revealing the injunction itself, prevented the public from learning of the leak’s existence and the ensuing resettlement attempts.
However, Mr Justice Chamberlain decided on Tuesday that the topic could no longer be suppressed, claiming that the injunction had hampered democratic accountability and created a “scrutiny vacuum.”
Costs and the official response
Defence Secretary John Healey apologised “unreservedly” to anyone impacted by what he described as a “serious departmental error” during a speech in the House of Commons.
A spreadsheet was accidentally shared outside of official government channels by a Ministry of Defence (MoD) employee, resulting in the breach.
Healey attested that the leak contained information about members of parliament, contacts in the UK government, and high Afghan military officials. The MoD has not revealed if any disciplinary action was taken against the accountable official, even though the Metropolitan Police determined that a police inquiry was not necessary.
The British government has already spent £400 million on the Afghan Relocation Route, which was put in place nine months after the breach was discovered. It is estimated that a further £400 to £450 million will be required to meet unpaid obligations. Existing migration offers to the remaining Afghans will be honoured even if the program is now being discontinued.
Staying in danger
About 600 Afghan soldiers whose information was stolen, along with 1,800 of their relatives, are still in Afghanistan, according to official estimates. The government said that it just started alerting those who were impacted by the hack on Tuesday, and it advised them to use caution online and stay away from strangers.
The data “may not have spread as widely as initially feared,” according to a private internal analysis that found the leak was unlikely to lead to targeted attacks. The study did concede, though, that members of the Taliban may have seen some of the list on Facebook.
Human rights and legal experts questioned how the MoD handled the case. Leigh Day attorney Erin Alcock, who represents several Arap applicants, referred to the breach as a “catastrophic failure” and forewarned of long-term repercussions for victims whose lives were jeopardised.
Political repercussions
Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, was found to have personally requested the super-injunction in 2023, claiming that it would afford the government time to safeguard people at risk from the data breach. Later, the court prolonged the order because of concerns that the Taliban may become aware of the public publication.
Mr. Justice Chamberlain, however, concluded that this argument was no longer valid, noting that the Taliban “probably already have the important data in the dataset.”
The leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, expressed her public regret for her party’s involvement in the incident, saying: “Someone made a terrible mistake. We apologise for that. That shouldn’t take place.
James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, went on to call the incident “an unacceptable breach of all relevant data protocols” and urged the government to reevaluate how it has been managing the resettlement operations in Afghanistan.
The episode contributes to the growing backlash against the UK’s evacuation and departure efforts in Afghanistan. Those left behind, many of whom had collaborated with British and NATO soldiers during the two-decade conflict, called the endeavour a “disaster” and a “betrayal,” according to a 2022 parliamentary report.
The end of confidentiality
Concerns regarding accountability, openness, and data privacy in the UK’s immigration and defence systems have been rekindled by Tuesday’s disclosures. A judgment that had been kept out of the public eye for more than a year can finally be examined by journalists and civil society thanks to the court’s decision to lift the super-injunction.
