Thousands of Afghans brought to UK under secret programme after data leak

Defence Minister John Healey says about 4,500 people are in Britain or in transit under the secret programme.

The United Kingdom set up a secret plan to resettle thousands of Afghans in Britain after an official accidentally disclosed the personal details of more than 33,000 people, putting them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban, court documents have showed.

A judge at London’s High Court said in a May 2024 judgement made public on Tuesday that about 20,000 people may have to be offered relocation to Britain, a move that would likely cost “several billion pounds”.

Britain’s current Defence Minister John Healey told Parliament that some 4,500 affected people “are in Britain or in transit … at a cost of around 400 million pounds [$540m]” under the programme known as the Afghan Response Route.

The government is also facing lawsuits from those affected by the data breach.

A Ministry of Defence-commissioned review of the data breach, a summary of which was also published on Tuesday, said more than 16,000 people affected by it had been relocated to the UK as of May this year.