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Thousands of Afghans relocated to UK under secret scheme after data leak Thousands of Afghans relocated to UK under secret scheme after data leak
(about 5 hours later)
MoD tried to cover up error which gave details of Afghans who said they worked with UK and which led to £2bn scheme Conservative government used superinjuction to hide error that put Afghans at risk and led to £2bn mitigation scheme
What we know about the secret Afghan relocation scheme
Afghan nationals: have you arrived in the UK under the Afghan Response Route?Afghan nationals: have you arrived in the UK under the Afghan Response Route?
Personal information about more than 33,000 Afghans seeking relocation to the UK after the Taliban takeover was released in error by a defence official – and the Ministry of Defence tried for nearly two years to cover up the leak and its consequences. Conservative ministers used an unprecedented superinjunction to suppress a data breach that required the UK to offer relocation to 15,000 Afghans in a secret scheme with a potential cost of more than £2bn.
Fears that the individuals named would be at risk from reprisals from the Taliban led the previous government to set up a secret relocation scheme, the Afghan Response Route (ARR), involving 20,000 people at a cost in the order of £2bn. The Afghan Response Route (ARR) was created in haste after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error by a British defence official in early 2022.
At noon on Tuesday, the high court judge Mr Justice Chamberlain announced that a superinjunction first obtained by the MoD in August 2023 would be lifted, allowing the leak and secret relocation scheme to be reported for the first time. Panicked ministers and officials at the Ministry of Defence learned of the breach in August 2023 after data was posted to a Facebook group and applied to the high court for an injunction, the first sought by a British government – to prevent any further media disclosure.
In his ruling, Chamberlain described the cost of the plans as amounting to “the sort of money which makes a material difference to government spending plans and is normally the stuff of political debate”. It was feared that publicity could put the lives of many thousands of Afghans at risk if the Taliban, who had control of the country following the western withdrawal in August 2021, were to become aware of the existence of the leaked list and to obtain it.
The dataset contained personal information of about 33,000 Afghans who had applied for one of two schemes run to allow people who had worked with the UK in Afghanistan to come to Britain with their families. The judge in the initial trial, Mr Justice Knowles, granted the application “contra mundum” – against the world – and ruled that its existence remain secret, resulting in a superinjunction which remained in place until lifted today.
It was released in error by an official and subsequently published on a Facebook page. When that came to the attention of the MoD, the department first applied for a superinjuction in September 2023, preventing its disclosure and reporting about it. The gagging order meant that both the data breach and the expensive mitigation scheme remained hidden despite its size and cost until near two-year legal battle was brought to a close in the high court.
The presiding judge said on Tuesday that he had decided at first to maintain the superinjunction at a hearing in November 2023 because he had been told by the MoD that if the Taliban became aware of the existence of the leaked data and obtained it, “many thousands” of those listed “could be killed or injured”. At noon on Tuesday, the high court judge Mr Justice Chamberlain said it was time to end the superinjuction, which he said had the effect of concealing discussions about spending “the sort of money which makes a material difference to government spending plans and is normally the stuff of political debate”.
However, at a hearing last month the judge received a copy of a review undertaken by a retired civil servant, Paul Rimmer, on behalf of the government assessing the relocation scheme, which led to Tuesday’s ruling. A few minutes later, John Healey, the defence secretary, offered a “sincere apology” for the data breach. In a statement to the Commons, he said he had felt “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency” around the data breach and “deeply uncomfortable to be constrained from reporting to this house”.
Healey told MPs that he was first briefed about the topic when he was in opposition in December 2023 by the junior Conservative defence minister James Heappey, at which he was “issued with the superinjunction at the start of the meeting”. Its existence was also made known to the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle.
However, the minister told MPs that neither Keir Starmer nor any other member of the current cabinet was briefed about gagging order until “on taking office after the general election”.
The minister said the leaked spreadsheet also included details of MPs, senior military officers and government officials linked to individual claims. The defence official, who passed on the information in error, had “mistakenly believed that they were sending the names of 150 applicants”.
In fact it contained 33,000 records among which was “personal information associated to 18,714 Afghans who had applied either to the ex gratia or the Arap [Afghan relocations and assistance policy] scheme on or before the 7th of January 2022”.
The defence secretary said Labour would now halt the Afghan Response Route, which will cost a total of £850m and will help an estimated 6,900 people. Stopping the scheme will save a projected additional spend of £1.2bn, defence sources said – meaning that the potential cost could have risen to more than £2bn.
There were, Healey said, about 900 Afghans who were “in Britain or in transit, with 3,600 family members at the cost of £400m” and the UK would “honour the 600 invitations already made to any named person still in Afghanistan and their immediate family” – a number estimated at 1,800.
Halting the scheme, however, would mean that another 9,500 people would not come to the UK, he added.
Three schemes, including the ARR, were created to help Afghans come to the UK after the Taliban takeover. So far, 36,000 people have arrived from the country, as of the end of March, and the government says that the total cost of all relocation schemes will be between £5.5bn and £6bn.
A Cabinet Office memo dated February 2025 that formed part of the evidence submitted to the court suggested that keeping open the ARR, the policy at the time, would mean relocating 25,000 Afghans at a time when “the UK’s asylum and immigration system is under strain”.
It said that would extend the scheme by five years at a total cost of £7bn – but government officials said yesterday that sum was an error – and the figure in fact applied to the cost of all three Afghan resettlement schemes at the time. The other two were closed to new applicants at the beginning of July, with the costs now reduced, they said.
One law firm, Barings, said it was pursuing potential legal action on behalf of 1,000 affected people, many of whom were linked to the Afghan armed forces during the period when the UK and other western militaries were based in the country.
Adnan Malik, a lawyer with the firm, said: “This is essentially a database for anyone who wants to know who assisted the armed forces in Afghanistan.” He added: “If you’re someone whose family member of friend was killed by these individuals I’m sure you will want to take vengeance.”
The initial decision to seek an injunction was taken by Ben Wallace, defence secretary until the end of August 2023. “We were determined that no harm came to those on the lists. The injunction was not about [a] cover-up. The judge, not us, decided on it being super,” he said.
But it was maintained while Grant Shapps was defence secretary, with the ARR scheme devised to mitigate the risk following the leak. One ally of Shapps said: “We came in after the incident,” but added that it was “believed strongly” there was a duty to protect all those named on the list.
Court judgments show that the size of the ARR kept increasing under the Conservatives. Ministers on the cabinet’s domestic and economic affairs committee decided in November to relocate 150 affected persons and their families, a figure that had risen to 2,300 people and 11,500 family members by March 2024.
Labour said that it had taken a year since coming to power to review the situation, and that decisions were taken following the commissioning of a review by Paul Rimmer, a retired civil servant, whose conclusions were also shared with and published by the high court.
Rimmer’s report concluded that the acquisition of the dataset by the Taliban was “unlikely to substantially change an individual’s existing exposure given the volume of data already available”. It was unlikely, Rimmer said, that “merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting”.Rimmer’s report concluded that the acquisition of the dataset by the Taliban was “unlikely to substantially change an individual’s existing exposure given the volume of data already available”. It was unlikely, Rimmer said, that “merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting”.
Chamberlain said the conclusions of that report “fundamentally undermine the evidential basis” on which he and the court of appeal in separate hearings had relied to decide that the MoD superinjunction should be upheld. The official told ministers that “given this context, the ARR policy appears an extremely significant intervention, with not inconsiderable risk” to the government. He warned it raised questions about “value for money” given “the UK domestic housing system is under acute pressure; with record levels of homelessness and wider public service pressures”.
Labour has now decided to halt the Afghan Response Route, which has so far cost £400m and will cost a further £450m. Stopping it will save a further £1.2bn, it is understood. In the high court, Chamberlain said the conclusions of Rimmer’s review “fundamentally undermine the evidential basis” on which he and the court of appeal in separate hearings had relied to decide that the MoD superinjunction should be upheld. The dramatically reduced threat assessment meant the extraordinary legal mechanism could no longer be justified.
The defence secretary, John Healey, offered a “sincere apology” for the data breach. In a statement to the Commons, he said he had felt “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency” around the data breach and “deeply uncomfortable to be constrained from reporting to this house”.
Healey said: “Members of this house, including you, Mr Speaker, and myself, have been subject to this superinjunction. It is unprecedented, and to be clear, the court has always recognised the parliamentary privilege of proceedings in this house, and ministers decided not to tell parliamentarians at an earlier stage about the data incident as the widespread publicity would increase the risk of the Taliban obtaining the dataset.”
Healey said the leaked spreadsheet also included details of MPs, senior military officers and government officials.
He said: “This official mistakenly believed that they were sending the names of 150 applicants. However, the spreadsheet in fact contained personal information associated to 18,714 Afghans who had applied either to the ex gratia or the Arap [Afghan relocations and assistance policy] scheme on or before the 7th of January 2022.
“It contained names and contact details of applicants and in some instances information relating to applicants’ family members. And, in a small number of cases, the names of members of parliament, senior military officers and government officials who were noted as supporting the application. This was a serious departmental error.”
He added: “To date, 900 ARR principals are in Britain or in transit, together with 3,600 family members, at a cost of around £400m.”
Healey said it had not been possible to contact every individual in the dataset due to its incomplete and out-of-date information. “However, anyone who may be concerned can head to our new dedicated gov.uk website, wherein they will find more information about the data loss, further security advice, a self-checker tool which will inform them whether their application has been affected, and contact steps for the detailed information services centre, which the MoD has established.”
The minister said 36,000 Afghans had been accepted by Britain as a result of various schemes after the fall of Kabul. The Arap scheme has now been closed.
“From today, there will be no new ARR offers of relocation to Britain, the route is now closed,” he said. “However, we will honour the 600 invitations already made to any named person still in Afghanistan and their immediate family. When this nation makes a promise, we should keep it.”
In the summer of 2021, the US decided to lead a withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to takeover in August. That left tens of thousands of people who had helped the UK and other countries during two decades of western military presence in the country at risk of reprisals.