UK discloses secret settlement plan for thousands of Afghans

The British government began secretly relocating thousands of Afghans who worked with British forces after a data leak threatened to reveal their identities.

The United Kingdom has secretly resettled thousands of Afghans who worked with British forces, the British government revealed on Tuesday.

The secret relocation scheme followed a 2022 data leak on their identities, sparking fears for their safety from the Taliban government.

What did the UK government say?

Defence Minister John Healey unveiled the scheme to parliament.

"This was a serious departmental error," Healey said, in reference to the data leak, adding that "lives may have been at stake."

The previous Conservative government put in place a secret program to help those "judged to be at the highest risk of reprisals by the Taliban," he said.

The program later became known as the Afghan Response Route. Under it, some 900 Afghans and 3,600 family members have either been brought to Britain or are currently in transit.

What do we know about the leak?

A dataset with the personal information of some 19,000 Afghans who had applied to come to Britain following the 2021 Taliban takeover was released in error in 2022. Extracts from the dataset were later published online.

Britain's Ministry of Defense only became aware of the breach in 2023, after the excerpts were posted on Facebook.

The UK's then-conservative government set up the secret program in 2024, costing £850 million ($1.14 billion; roughly €980 million), to resettle those compromised by the leak, after obtaining a strict court order known as a superinjunction. The order bars anyone from revealing the program's existence.

On Tuesday, the injunction was lifted, making the program public under the current Labour government.

London said an independent review found little evidence that the leaked data would put those nearly 20,000 Afghans to greater risk of retribution from the Taliban government.

Edited by: Kieran Burke