Thousands of people are being relocated to the UK as part of a secret £850m scheme set up after a personal data leak of Afghans who supported British forces, it can now be reported.
A dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) was released “in error” by a defence official in February 2022.
The breach resulted in the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme – the Afghanistan Response Route – in April 2024.
The scheme is understood to have cost about £400m so far, with a projected cost once completed of about £850m. Millions more is expected to be paid in legal costs and compensation.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) only became aware of the breach more than a year after the release when excerpts of the dataset were anonymously posted on to a Facebook group in August 2023.
More details soon …