Former UK special forces members ‘furious' about Afghan data breach
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Spectator
35 minutes ago
- Spectator
Where are the resettled Afghans living in Britain?
This week, we learned that three years ago a Ministry of Defence official accidentally released details of 18,714 Afghans who had applied for relocation to the UK. The Afghans, who had worked with British armed forces, feared retribution from the Taliban, so the Conservative government introduced a new scheme, alongside existing programmes, to resettle some of these people. The Spectator's leading article this week argues that Britain had a moral responsibility to help them. But how many have arrived so far? And where are they living in Britain? As of May, 35,245 people had been relocated to the UK through the Afghan resettlement programme made up of several schemes such as the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), and the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). The latter is the recently-revealed scheme for those deemed at risk but not eligible for ARAP or ACRS. Half of those resettled – some 16,156 – were affected by the data leak. All of the schemes were closed to new applicants on 1 July. ARAP focussed on Afghans who worked with the UK government and classified applicants into four categories. Category one covered UK government employees at immediate risk; category two was for Afghans who mostly worked as translators or cultural advisers; categories three and four covered those considered at lower risk. ACRS had a slightly wider criteria than ARAP (only 5 per cent of those who applied for ARAP in August 2021 were deemed eligible). It aimed to resettle around 20,000 Afghans – those who helped Britain but did not necessarily work with the armed forces, stood up for democracy or are members of minority religions or groups at risk. Like ARAP it had three categories, or 'pathways' which granted indefinite leave to remain, work rights, and eligibility for welfare benefits. Pathway one covered those evacuated during Operation Pitting in 2021; pathway two included referrals by the UNHCR; and pathway three targeted the 'at-risk individuals' who supported British efforts. ACRS also covers spouses, partners, and dependent children under the age of 18. The Afghan resettlement programme also assisted some British nationals (960) and other foreign nationals (120), though the vast majority were Afghans. Around two-thirds of the 34,308 resettled Afghans live in England, ranging from 5,541 in the south-east to 1,163 in the East Midlands. Scotland has 1,735; Wales, 772; and Northern Ireland, 305. No location data is available for the remaining 7,716. Among local authorities, Crawley (including Gatwick Airport) hosts the largest group (1,026), followed by Leeds (616), Birmingham (605), and Edinburgh (563). Fifteen local authorities, including Torridge in Devon, South Derbyshire, and the Isles of Scilly, have no resettled Afghans. Besides the resettlement schemes, many Afghans migrate to the UK for better economic prospects, as the UK's per capita GDP is 25 times higher than Afghanistan's. In 2024 alone, more than 5,700 Afghans arrived by small boat across the English Channel, making them the most common nationality using this route. Since 2018, 27,285 Afghans have arrived via small boats or other forms of irregular migration. As the scandal over the government's leak and cover-up continues, it's worth noting that some 5,400 more Afghans who have received invitation letters under ARR will be arriving in the UK over the next few months. The rest will be left in Afghanistan.
Belfast Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Devastating Afghan data breach a huge failing by Government, says former Army captain Doug Beattie
An Ulster Unionist MLA who served three tours in Afghanistan has slammed the Ministry of Defence's massive data leak that resulted in thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the UK as 'a huge failing'. Doug Beattie, who was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in Afghanistan, said the breach was 'devastating' for the thousands of Afghans who helped UK forces against the Taliban.
Spectator
2 hours ago
- Spectator
The irony of the Afghan resettlement scandal
If there is one wholesale conclusion to be drawn from the Afghan resettlement scheme scandal, it's that a problem we have today is not so much a profusion of 'misinformation' but rather the suppression of genuine information. In Britain now, it's not 'fake news' that causes widespread resentment and anger, but moves made by successive British governments to silence real news. Ever since the masses decided to vote against their overlords in Britain and America in 2016 in the EU referendum and US presidential election of that year, the elites have propagated the belief that an unintelligent populace has been vulnerable to 'misinformation'. This is the idea that the suggestible lower orders have only become persuaded by populism because they get their news from unreliable social media outlets. Notwithstanding that there are myriad, genuine reasons behind the populist turn of the past ten years, what indisputably generates current indignation and fury are efforts to withhold information from the public. The decision by the previous Conservative administration to allow thousands of Afghans into the country secretly, and then by the successive Labour government to cover it up, is but the latest in a long line of fateful decisions to withhold the truth from the people. Many became aware of this increasing inclination towards state secrecy during the last decade, as revelations of the grooming gangs scandal began to emerge. Not only did the extent of these horrors come fully to light in January this year, but so too did the lengths to which local authorities and police forces had gone to keep these crimes quiet. While their failure to act, out of fear of accusations of racism, became a further source of outrage, revelations made by Dominic Cummings last month that Whitehall officials wanted to go to court in 2011 to cover up the whole episode have heaped yet more disgrace upon the state. The cowardly and deceitful response to these crimes by those in charge – a response going right to the top – is as much remembered now as the crimes themselves. Yet dishonesty, evasiveness and an active determination to withhold facts seem to have become the norm among those in charge. This was made clear after the mass stabbing and murder of three girls in Southport last July, the chief suspect of which, the public was simply and repeatedly told, was 'from Cardiff'. Were we told this because the authorities didn't want to let it be known that the chief suspect, Axel Rudakubana, was born in the Welsh capital to Rwandan parents? Merseyside police and countless politicians knew shortly after the attack that he was in possession of terrorist material, but on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service, the public was not told. It was the failure to disclose this information, one borne perhaps from a fear that it might inflame anti-immigrant sentiment, that paradoxically fanned the flames of anger which led to the riots that actually followed. The online rumour mill had indeed gone into overdrive, but it did so because many people don't trust the government to tell them the truth about these matters anymore. The public had become especially driven to cynicism and disbelief following the Islamist attacks in Britain and Europe in the 2010s, after repeatedly being informed that the perpetrators had 'mental health issues' or other such mendacities. Yet still the authorities continue to make matters worse out of fear that the truth must not out, lest the easily-aroused hoi polloi fly into a rage. Elsewhere this week we've read that the Home Office has refused to share the location of asylum hotels with food delivery companies such as Deliveroo, citing 'safety concerns' for hotel occupants. And only yesterday the Daily Telegraph reported that ministers once more fear riots will break out in Britain following the disclosures of the Afghan resettlement debacle. There is indeed much anger in Britain today about immigration. Yet the anger has seldom been conspicuously directed towards the incomers themselves – the assaults against immigrants after Southport last year were remarkable because they were unusual. However, the ire has mostly and increasingly been aimed at the liberal overclass who first decided that large-scale immigration was a good idea – for ideological reasons and stemming from vested economic interests – and then have lied and continued to lie about its consequences. When the general public do voice their resentment at the ballot box, or via mainstream or social media, the elites then have the audacity to accuse the masses of being stupid or ill-informed. The ultimate irony of our situation today, one in which the smothering of information has become the norm and expectation, is that it feeds a genuinely counter-factual, conspiratorial mindset. The language of 'government cover-ups' is rapidly becoming common parlance. This is the direct fault of governmental deceit and dishonesty over actual facts.
