Latest news with #AfghanRelocation
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘When that data falls into the hands of the Taliban it will lead to my arrest, torture and death'
Here are the voices of Afghans whose details were included in a 2022 data leak, which was made public on Tuesday after a superinjunction was lifted. All names have been changed. Azizullah I worked with UK and coalition forces as an interpreter in Helmand and Kandahar for more than a decade. When I read the email on the morning of 15 July, I froze. It felt like my blood had turned to ice. Finding that the UK government had accidentally leaked the names and details of people like me – Afghans who had worked with British forces, who had trusted them, and who are now living in fear because of that trust. The first thing that flashed through my mind wasn't myself. It was my family. My mother, my brother, my sister, they're in Turkey right now, waiting. We've been waiting for four years under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), sending email after email, holding on to the promise that the UK would not abandon us. And now this. This breach. This betrayal. I am the one handing their paperwork and the only one aware until now about this leak. I still haven't told them. How can I? My family has already lived through enough trauma. If I tell them what's happened, I'm terrified of what it will do to them, not just emotionally, but physically. They will break. I know it. And it's not just them. My aunt and her children are still in Afghanistan. They've worked extensively with ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) earlier and later, the coalition forces – UK and US troops both. They are in hiding now. If they are found, they will die. There is no question. We are not talking about hypothetical risk. We are talking about people being hunted, arrested, tortured, killed. And it's happening now. They are going to die in that hell unless someone acts. And let me be clear: it is only the UK government's responsibility to save them. This is their mistake. They owe us our lives. Naser I worked alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan – not just as an interpreter but also on security projects. When the chaos erupted at Abbey Gate in August 2021, I held a laissez-passer, but still, I couldn't get on any evacuation flights. Since then, I've applied again and again to the US, UK, and EU governments for help. I even risked travelling to Pakistan, waiting there for over a year with no income and constant fear. Others working with me were relocated to Germany from Pakistan. I waited and watched as one by one many of my colleagues left. But life there (Pakistan) was unbearable, and I chose to come back to Kabul, because nowhere else treated us well. I didn't even know that emails were sent yesterday. My brother got one and told me. The emails we sent with our requests over the years, our files, contained our pictures taken alongside Nato troops, our home addresses, and details of the security projects we worked on. All the information that could help us relocate was sent out. I'm terrified. How can anyone be this careless with our lives? The Taliban has been actively hunting down those who worked with UK forces. I'm not angry! I am ashamed that I put my children's lives at risk for a foreign power. My family and I have been detained multiple times over the years – my brothers, my cousins and me. Back then, at least, I hoped the Taliban didn't know everything about our past. But now? How do we protect ourselves if they suddenly produce a list? What if we deny it and they show us the proof in front of our eyes? The last 24 hours have been unbearable. Some people have received invitations from the UK government since 2022, but not us. It feels like we've been forgotten. I'm begging the UK government: don't only help those stuck in Pakistan and Iran; please help those of us you worked with who are trapped here in Afghanistan. My children, my elderly mother – they only have me. Most of my family members have already left for other countries. I am here. I'm scared and lost. They (UK authorities) told us not to reply to emails, but to use the portal instead. Four years of waiting, and still no help. What hope do we have now? We lost everything in Pakistan – our savings, our dignity. Now, with no money and no evacuation flights, neighbours pushing us out, I wonder: are we not human? Don't we deserve help? Sameem I was granted refugee status in the UK in 2013 and I have since worked as a freelance interpreter for the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defence, which included training British soldiers. My wife joined me in the UK and I applied to relocate my family – my father, brother, sisters – through the Arap [Afghan relocations and assistance policy] scheme but I was told they were not eligible. But my family are at high risk in Afghanistan because of their jobs. My father was a prosecutor for the Afghan government for many years. The Taliban killed one of my brothers in 2011 and another was shot dead in front of his two children in 2021. My family has been living in hiding since the fall of Kabul. Yesterday [Tuesday], I received an email from the UK government stating that my data might have been leaked. They provided me with a link to a self-checker and it showed that it had. It's really concerning and frustrating because it means the Taliban can easily target my family now. I replied to the email saying: 'My family were at high risk back home in Afghanistan and you didn't help to relocate them, but now you've shared their data. If anything happens to them, who will take responsibility for that?' They haven't replied to my email. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The British government must now take responsibility for this breach of data. I've already lost two members of my family. I don't want to lose more. Shah I know my name is on the list that was leaked because I was notified by the UK government that my details were compromised in a Ministry of Defence data breach. My family and I, living in Afghanistan, now face an imminent threat to our lives because of this breach. I believe that when that data falls into the hands of the Taliban it will lead to my arrest, torture and death. After the Taliban took over, I went into hiding because I had an important role in the courts bringing Taliban terrorists captured by the British to justice. Family members have been interrogated by the Taliban to try to get them to give information about where I'm hiding, so it is now too dangerous for me to have any contact with them. I have moved into a safe house because of the danger I'm in. In the spring of 2023, the Taliban's interest in me increased. I believe this may be linked to the data breach. They tracked down my family but I wasn't at home because I was hiding somewhere else. Since then many members of my family have been interrogated about my whereabouts. Contrary to what the British government is saying, I don't believe the Taliban has ever lost interest in me. The worst part of all this is not knowing until this week that my name was on a leaked database that the Taliban may have had access to. Ahmad I was on my way to a doctor's appointment to seek treatment for a stress-related illness when the email from the UK government appeared in my inbox. I felt awful. I was already under immense stress due to my family's situation, but this made things worse. Between 2016 to August 2021 I worked with NDS-D011, a unit of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) that was supported by British intelligence. After the fall of Kabul and my evacuation to the UK in 2021, I submitted the personal details of my immediate family – including my parents, two sisters, and three brothers – to the Ministry of Defence as part of a family reunification application. Despite over three years passing, neither I, nor any of my approximately 120 colleagues who also relocated to the UK, have succeeded in bringing our families to safety. I am part of a group chat with these individuals, and yesterday [Tuesday], 65 others reported receiving the same email acknowledging the data breach. Last night, we all contacted our families and warned them to take extra safety precautions. None of our relatives can live freely or safely in Afghanistan. Two of my former colleagues who were unable to flee the country were arrested by the Taliban about eight months ago and remain imprisoned. The Taliban consider anyone who worked with foreign governments a traitor and punish them accordingly. Can these governments guarantee that the Taliban will stay on their promise not to target our families?
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
I checked Afghan papers. The MoD must come clean on vetting
The secret Afghan relocation scheme could 'cause quite a headache for the security services' because those brought to the UK may not have been fully vetted, a former military caseworker has claimed. Robert Clark, a former soldier and reservist who worked on the public Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) relocation scheme, said he had been told by people within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that there had not been full vetting of applicants who had been secretly brought to the UK. He said there would be national security questions for the intelligence services and police if there had not been the necessary checks to establish whether individuals had been radicalised or had terrorist connections. According to the Government, some 6,900 Afghans and their families were identified as eligible for the secret scheme after their details were leaked, putting them at risk of being killed by the Taliban. Around half have so far come to the UK, according to officials. However, the vetting claims have been disputed by ministers and Government officials. They said Afghans who came under the secret relocation scheme were subject to the same security checks as those who came through either of the two other public schemes run by the MoD and Home Office. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, told Times Radio: 'Anyone who has come into this country under any of the Government schemes that was under the previous government, and now from Afghanistan, is checked carefully for security, checked carefully for any of those sort of criminal records that would preclude and prevent them coming to this country.' He challenged Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, to provide evidence to support his claims that 'convicted sex offenders' were among those airlifted to the UK after the data leak. 'We run security checks about the backgrounds of those individuals and where they pose those sorts of threats, they're prevented from coming and denied access to Britain,' said Mr Healey. However, the Defence Secretary added: 'No doubt some of them have committed some offences and got into trouble [since arriving in the UK]. That's true right across the board.' "No doubt some of them have committed some offences and got into trouble." @JohnHealey_MP tells #TimesRadio Afghans coming under government schemes were checked carefully but he "can't account" for individuals being responsible for criminal behaviour since they have arrived. — Times Radio (@TimesRadio) July 16, 2025 Under the vetting process, any Afghans seeking refuge in the UK on the relocation schemes should be screened for serious and organised crime, as well as for any evidence of terrorist or extremist links. Afghans whose safety was put at risk by the leak were invited to apply for relocation to the UK under the secret scheme, and came via Islamabad, where security vetting was undertaken. Mr Clark, an Afghan war veteran who was a caseworker on the Arap scheme from September 2024 to February this year, said he did not know of any vetting failures related to it. The only exceptions were half a dozen young Afghan men under police investigation for sexual assaults or harassment after their arrival. However, he said he believed it was different for those who had come under the secret relocation scheme and were deemed to be at high risk. Mr Clark added: 'The only reason why they've come is because their details were leaked, i.e. they hadn't passed vetting. I'm also told they wouldn't have been eligible for whatever reason, whether it was vetting or tenuous links to the settlement scene itself. 'But they didn't get to that stage. They were just brought across precisely because, only because, their details were leaked. So it was a sense that we owe them a moral obligation, a duty of care.' Earlier, Mr Clark told Times Radio: '[That's] 6,900 people who wouldn't have been eligible here otherwise, except for the fact that personal details were leaked. And like I say, this is going to cause quite a headache for the security services, I'm afraid.' He said that criminal checks on Afghans were never 100 per cent guaranteed because many laws in the country were different. For example, sexual assault within marriage was not necessarily an offence.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Defence secretary John Healey 'deeply uncomfortable' with government using super-injunction after Afghanistan data breach
The defence secretary has told Sky News he is "deeply uncomfortable" with the government using a super-injunction to keep a massive data breach hidden. Almost 7,000 Afghan nationals as a result of the breach by the British military, with the personal information of close to 20,000 individuals who helped or worked with UK forces being exposed. John Healey told on Breakfast: "I'm really deeply uncomfortable with the idea that a government applies for a super-injunction. "If there are any [other] super-injunctions in place, I just have to tell you - I don't know about them. I haven't been read into them. "The important thing here now is that we've closed the scheme." Mr Healey defended the government's decision to keep secret a huge data leak that put thousands of lives at risk. The defence secretary said when he first came into government, "we had to sort out a situation which we'd not had access to dealing with before". "That meant getting on top of the risks, the intelligence assessments, the policy complexities, the court papers and the range of Afghan relocation schemes the previous government had put in place," he said. "And it also meant taking decisions that no one takes lightly because lives may be at stake." Read more: Mr Healey added that an independent review he launched says that it is now "highly unlikely that being a name on this data set that was lost three-and-a-half years ago increases the risk of being targeted", which is why the whole leak can be revealed. Ministers have to account for applying for a super-injunction Challenged on why it could not be revealed earlier if those on the list are no longer at risk, Mr Healey said the super-injunction "was a matter for the court". He said ministers needed to provide judges with a "fresh assessment" in order to have the super-injunction lifted. Mr Healey also refused to criticise the former Conservative defence minister Ben Wallace for initially applying for the super-injunction, saying he did not know what information the minister had when he took the decision. "But the important thing is they now have to account for those decisions," he added. The defence secretary was asked about who exactly is responsible for the massive data leak that is estimated to have cost millions of pounds. Mr Healey responded that he is "not going to launch a witch hunt or point the finger at him". It follows former veterans minister Johnny Mercer writing publicly that he claims to know the person responsible. Challenged on whether it is not a "witch hunt", but accountability, Mr Healey hit back. He said: "This goes much bigger than the mistaken actions of a single individual. My job as defence secretary, a year ago, was to get on top of the problems that I inherited." Mr Healey explained this is why he launched an independent review and the super-injunction ended, which means the leak and the subsequent scheme to bring those at risk to the UK can now face "proper scrutiny and accountability".
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Revealed: What the Government said in secret court sessions about relocating Afghans to the UK - and what it's saying now...
During two years and more than 20 court hearings, ministers argued a super-injunction was necessary to give them the chance to relocate tens of thousands of Afghans to the UK, with costs of up to £7billion cited regularly. Yesterday the Ministry of Defence was saying the numbers were in the single-digit thousands and the costs £400 million to £800 million. Here we contrast what they said in court – when journalists were gagged – and what they are saying now: THE COSTS WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAID YESTERDAY: Defence Secretary John Healey to the Commons: 'On the question of the £7 billion, this was a previous estimate. It is not related simply to the Afghan recovery route. It is an estimate of the total cost of all Government Afghan schemes for the entire period in which they may operate. 'The cost of the ARR (Afghanistan Response Route) scheme to date, the cost and the sums committed to bring the 900 principals and their immediate families that are in Britain or in transit is around £400 million, and I expect a similar sum to be the cost of those still to come.' MoD officials: 'The total amount for ALL schemes was a potential £7 billion. Not for this incident alone. As you know £400 million is what is spent on this incident so far with about double to come.' WHAT IT TOLD THE COURT: An MoD briefing paper summing up an October 2024 meeting of the home and economic affairs committee of Cabinet members talked about 'the strategic approach to manage the impact of the data incident'. 'The current policy response to the data incident will mean relocating c.25,000 Afghans... this will mean relocating more Afghans to the UK... this will extend the scheme for another 5 years at a cost of c.£7billion.' Mr Justice Chamberlain in November 2024: 'I'm starting to doubt myself – am I going bonkers, because it really is £6 billion?' [Later confirmed to be £7 billion]Cathryn McGahey KC for the MoD: 'It it's a very large amount of public money being spent without currently any information to the public.' February 2025 Mr Justice Chamberlain, during discussions in court: 'You're going to have to say something about all of this, because you're spending £7 billion and you're letting in many thousands of people that you wouldn't have been letting in before. If you're doing all of those things, you're going to have to say something at some point.' July 2025 Mr Justice Chamberlain: 'People will want to judge for themselves... to know a bit of detail about what exactly was lost; what was it, that caused the Government to decide to spend £7 billion or whatever it is.' Ms McGahey KC for the MoD: 'Yes.' NUMBERS ARRIVING WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SAID YESTERDAY: Around 4,500 people, made up of 900 'principal' applicants and approximately 3,600 family members, have been brought to the UK or are in transit so far through the Afghanistan Response Route. A further estimated 600 and their relatives are expected to be relocated before the scheme closes, a total of 6,900 people. WHAT IT TOLD THE COURT: October 2024: Defence Secretary John Healey's presentation to the home and economic affairs committee of Cabinet members: 'This paper... argues for a reformed Afghan Resettlement Programme that could see c.36,000 settled. Assuming minsters are content to proceed as recommended, we would be aspiring to develop a programme which resettles c.36,000 people (of which c.3,500 are already in the relocation pipeline).' February 2025 MoD briefing paper in February 2025 summing up the HEA Cabinet meeting: 'The HEA agreed that the current policy response which offers relocation to the UK...(c.25,000 Afghans) remained appropriate.' 'The current policy response to the data incident will mean relocating c.25,000 Afghans' June 2025 Dominic Wilson, senior mandarin at the Cabinet Office, in a 'statement of truth' to High Court last month: There are 6,169 principal applicants affected by data breach who are eligible for relocation. Plus 14,952 confirmed family members and 21,451 family members remaining to be confirmed. Total 42,572 individuals, all data-affected and eligible for relocation. Of these 42,572, so far 16,156 individuals have already been relocated to the UK. A further 6,592 are 'currently being progressed' to the UK Another batch of 21,300 people not affected by the data breach are also coming.
Sky News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Almost 7,000 Afghans being relocated to UK in secret scheme after MoD data breach
Almost 7,000 Afghan nationals are being relocated to the UK following a massive data breach by the British military that successive governments tried to keep secret with a superinjunction. The blunder exposed the personal information of close to 20,000 individuals, endangering them and their families - with as many as 100,000 people impacted in total. The UK only informed everyone on Tuesday - three-and-a-half years after their data was compromised. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the relocation costs alone directly linked to the data breach will be around £850m. An internal government document from February this year said the cost could rise to £7bn, but an MoD spokesperson said that this was an outdated figure. However, the total cost to the taxpayer of existing schemes to assist Afghans who are deemed eligible for British support, as well as the additional cost from the breach, will come to at least £6bn. In addition, litigation against the UK arising from the mistake could add additional cost, as well as whatever the government has already spent on the superinjunction. Details about the blunder can finally be made public after a judge lifted the injunction that had been sought by the government. 2:46 Barings Law, a law firm that is representing around 1,000 of the victims, accused the government of trying to hide the truth from the public following a lengthy legal battle. Defence Secretary John Healey offered a "sincere apology" for the data breach in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon. He said he had felt "deeply concerned about the lack of transparency" around the data breach, adding: "No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner." The previous Conservative government set up a secret scheme in 2023 - which can only now be revealed - to relocate Afghan nationals impacted by the data breach but who were not eligible for an existing programme to relocate and assist individuals who had worked for the British government in Afghanistan. Some 6,900 Afghans - comprising 1,500 people named on the list as well as their dependents - are being relocated to the UK as part of this programme. This comes on top of the many thousands more who are being moved until the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP). A lot of these individuals are also caught up in the data breach. The Times, which has been battling the injunction, said a total of 18,500 people have so far been relocated to the UK, including those directly impacted plus their dependents. 👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 Some 5,400 more Afghans who have already received invitation letters will be flown to the UK in the coming weeks, bringing the total number of Afghans affected by the breach being brought to the UK to 23,900. The rest of the affected Afghans will be left behind, the newspaper reported. How did the data breach happen? The disaster is thought to have been triggered by the careless handling of an email that contained a list of the names and other details of 18,714 Afghan nationals. They had been trying to apply to a British government scheme to support those who helped or worked with UK forces in Afghanistan that were fighting the Taliban between 2001 and 2021. The collapse of the western-backed Afghan government that year saw the Taliban return to power. The new government regards anyone who worked with British or other foreign forces during the previous two decades as a traitor. A source said a small number of people named on the list are known to have subsequently been killed, though it is not clear if this was a direct result of the data breach. It is also not clear whether the Taliban has the list - only that the MoD lost control of the information. Adnan Malik, head of data protection at Barings Law, said: "This is an incredibly serious data breach, which the Ministry of Defence has repeatedly tried to hide from the British public. "It involved the loss of personal and identifying information about Afghan nationals who have helped British forces to defeat terrorism and support security and stability in the region. "A total of around 20,000 individuals have been affected, putting them and their loved ones at serious risk of violence from opponents and armed groups." The law firm is working with around 1,000 of those impacted "to pursue potential legal action". It is thought that only a minority of the names on the list - about 10 to 15% - would have been eligible for help under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP). The breach occurred in February 2022, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, but was only discovered by the British military in August 2023. A superinjunction - preventing the reporting of the mistake - was imposed in September of that year. It meant the extraordinary - and costly - plan to transport thousands of Afghans to the UK took place in secret until now. Sir Keir Starmer's government inherited the scandal. What is a superinjunction? In UK law, a superinjunction prevents the publication of certain information. However, unlike a regular injunction, it also prevents the media from reporting on the existence of the injunction itself. Superinjunctions can only be granted by the high court, with applicants required to meet stringent legal tests of necessity, proportionality and the risk of serious harm. They are most commonly used in cases involving breaches of privacy, confidential business information, or where there is a risk of significant reputational damage. Why was superinjunction lifted? An internal review into the affair was launched at the start of this year by Paul Rimmer, a retired civil servant. It played down the risk to those whose data is included in the breached dataset should it fall into the hands of the Taliban. The review said it was "unlikely to substantially change an individual's existing exposure given the volume of data already available". It also concluded that "it appears unlikely that merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting" and it is "therefore also unlikely that family members... will be targeted simply because the 'principal' appears... in the dataset". This is why a High Court judge ruled that the superinjunction could be lifted. Mr Malik, however, said that he believes there is still a risk to those named in the breach. He added: "Our claimants continue to live with the fear of reprisal against them and their families, when they should have been met with gratitude and discretion for their service. "We would expect substantial financial payments for each claimant in any future legal action. While this will not fully undo the harm they have been exposed to, it will enable them to move forward and rebuild their lives." Latest MoD data breach While the MoD's data breach is by far the largest involving Afghan nationals, it is not the first. Earlier this month, the MoD said Afghans impacted by a separate mistake could claim up to £4,000 in compensation four years after the incident happened. Human error resulted in the personal information of 265 Afghans who had worked alongside British troops being shared with hundreds of others who were on the same email distribution list in September 2021. In December 2023, the UK Information Commissioner fined the MoD £350,000 and said the "egregious" breach could have been life-threatening.
