Afghans ‘at risk of being radicalised in the UK' as Home Office urged to investigate threat

Independent

6 days ago

Afghans evacuated to safety in Britain are at risk of being radicalised because they may feel let down by their new life in the UK, a review into the catastrophic Ministry of Data data leak has warned.
Paul Rimmer, the former deputy head of Defence Intelligence who led the government's review into the data breach, warned that competing pressures on the UK housing system and wider public services meant there was a 'growing gap' between the expectations and reality of life in Britain for Afghans who resettle here.
His review urged the Home Office to investigate the risk of radicalisation further, warning that Afghanistan is 'becoming a base for a wide range of terrorist groups'.
Under secret plans to evacuate Afghans affected by the breach to the UK, ministers had approved a scheme which estimated that ten per cent of refugees could become homeless.
Those brought to Britain are housed in temporary accommodation for nine months before, in most cases, being expected to find their own homes. The review found that many might not have anywhere to live long-term.
The findings were revealed in a new version of the report, which was shared with media parties to the superinjunction case, after a private version of the report was 'opened-up' by lawyers, allowing it to be shared.
Mr Rimmer's review said experts, including NGOs and independent case workers, who gave evidence to the review, 'expressed concern around the risk that resettled Afghans could be radicalised in the UK'.
It said there 'is a risk of a growing gap between resettled Afghans' expectations, and the reality of what ever-more stretched domestic services can deliver'.
Some experts also 'highlighted concerns around the extent to which Afghanistan is becoming a base for a wide range of terrorist groups', prompting Mr Rimmer to urge the Home Office to investigate the issue 'in more detail'.
It was revealed last week that around 18,700 Afghans who had applied to relocate to Britain over safety fears had their names and contact details exposed in a catastrophic MoD data leak. The breach happened when a member of the armed forces emailed a secret database to trusted contacts in February 2022.
The blunder, which was only discovered in August 2023, resulted in some 16,000 Afghans being relocated to Britain as part of a covert operation over fears they would be targeted by the Taliban
The operation was only publicly revealed last Tuesday after an unprecedented superinjunction banning details of the leak from being reported was lifted after nearly two years of secrecy.
The trigger behind the lifting of the was Mr Rimmer's review which concluded that, while the Taliban does commit reprisals against former Afghan security forces, being identified on the dataset was unlikely to constitute sole grounds for targeting.
It comes as prime minister Sir Keir Starmer told MPs on Monday that ministers were 'quite uncomfortable' about the continuing superinjunction when they discovered its existence on taking office in 2024.
Sir Keir told the Liaison Committee: 'It was a shocking inheritance, we inherited the breach, the injunction and a secret scheme. A number of us were quite uncomfortable about that which is why we set up the review to ask the question, is it necessary for these arrangements still to be in place? That produced an answer, which was no.'
Asked why it took Labour a year to come to that view, Sir Keir responded: 'It was a very complicated review... I wanted the review to be as careful as it could be. That was a risk assessment which held people's lives in it.'
The prime minister's comments come as an accompanying report to the policy review revealed that more than 1,300 Afghans have become homeless and been given emergency housing help by councils since July 2023. Over 100 families were living in temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs and hotels, as of April this year.
Under the government's Afghan Resettlement Programme, which covered public and secret resettlement routes for Afghans to come to the UK, around 10 per cent of Afghans were estimated to become homeless.
Officials estimated this would be around 730 people a year, but the government review said this was 'overly optimistic', as it was overly reliant on Afghan families being able to find their own private rented accommodation.
Ministers have now closed the secret ARR scheme, but will honour sanctuary invitations already sent out and will continue to process cases in the two public Afghan resettlement schemes.
A government spokesperson said that all arrivals 'have to undergo robust security checks, including for national security. If they don't pass these checks, they are not granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK'.
He added that the government is 'working with local authorities to ensure housing solutions meet the needs of the UK population, as well as Afghans who are resettling here'.