What we do and don't know

A large data injury that led to the fact that thousands of Afghans were secretly laid in Great Britain for the first time this week.

On Tuesday, the High Court decided that it was time that the details saw the light of the day – but the revelations raised as many questions as they answered.

A table with the personal details of almost 19,000 people who asked to come to Great Britain to flee the Taliban was accidentally leaked by an official official in February 2022.

This unnamed civil servant has sent the document outside the government team by e -mail, which process the Afghan moving applications and reach public relations.

The police decided that no investigations were necessary. The BBC has confirmed that it is no longer in the post that he occupied at the time of the violation

The leaked document contained the names, contact details and in some cases family information about a variety of people who believed that their connection with British armed forces could harm them during the Afghan War.

The leak only appeared in August 2023 when the names of nine people who applied for the move to Great Britain appeared on Facebook.

BBC News understands that an Afghan citizen who had been rejected because of the move was responsible for the passing on of the information on Facebook and that an accelerated review of his application was offered in return for taking the city. It is assumed that he is now in Great Britain and is not exposed to criminal charges.

For fear that the document could fall into the hands of the Taliban, the government tried to suppress the knowledge of it by receiving an injunction.

In September 2023 it was feared that up to 100,000 could be affected by the leak taking into account the family members.

In April 2024, the government founded the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) for people whose details offer them a way out of Afghanistan – but they were not told about the leak.

This new, secret route was separated from the ARAP program (Afghan guidelines and auxiliary policy).

By May 2024, the court had seen evidence that around 20,000 people are entitled to relocate according to the new system.

Defense Minister John Healey said on Tuesday that around 900 people in Great Britain or on the way, together with 3,600 of their family members.

After another 600 offers were made, he did not state whether this included the families of these people.

We do not know how many people who were on the leaked list are still in Afghanistan, but a court document from May 2024 stated that around 80,000 people with an increased risk would not be resettled.

A total of around 36,000 Afghans have moved to Great Britain since the withdrawal of international troops. Of these, the BBC mod confirmed that more than 16,000 people who were classified as a risk due to the leak – either because they appeared on the list or their family member – from May 2025 had come to Great Britain, either via the secret emergency scheme or about another route.

Both the Arr and the ARAP programs are now closed.

It is not possible to definitely say whether someone was damaged as the direct result of the leak, and the mod refused to be drawn on this matter.

However, a review that was carried out by the retired official Paul Rimmer for the government in early 2025 found that the leaked document “may not have spread as widespread as it originally feared”, and doubts about previous ratings that the information for the Taliban would have been of great value.

Mr. Rimmer came to the conclusion that in view of the Taliban it already had access to data masses about the population in Afghanistan, it was “unlikely”, the only reason for a reprisal attack would have been.

He said, while murders and human rights violations are carried out against former civil servants, the concern about a widespread retaliation campaign was “reduced”.

However, those that are contained in the leaked document consider it a catastrophic failure that has increased the risk to you and your families.

The government has previously issued £ 400 million for the program and expects another £ 450 million.

This is far below the estimates that were negotiated in the High Court in the High Court in May 2024, which said that it could cost “several billion”.

Overall, the final costs of all efforts to change Afghans since 2021 will be 5.5 to 6 billion GBP, the government said.

The then defense secretary Ben Wallace hired an application to the High Court on September 1, 2023 and was looking for an injunction that would criminalize itself to make the leak public.

The Taliban were able to search for the list and use it to aim for people, the government feared.

Mr. Justice Knowles said that the request was “exceptional” and “continued” when the government had been asked and improved it to a super-in-change. This made it illegal to reveal both details about the leak and refer to the existence of the court decision.

It was regularly checked by another judge, Mr. Justice Chamberlain, who said in November 2023 that it was the first injunction of its kind and expressed the concerns about freedom of speech.

He tried to raise the command in May, but the government appealed and it remained before the cancellation of Tuesday.

Another injunction was provided to prevent some of the most sensitive details of the leakage documented that were published.

From August 2023, efforts were made to restrict the number of officials within the mod, who knew about the leak, and it is unclear when the then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other cabinet ministers were made aware of.

In December 2023, Healey – who was then a shadow defense secretary – was informed about the leak of James Hapey, Minister of Armed Forces.

Healey said the shadow cabinet was only told after the parliamentary elections.

At no point in the leaks were not made aware of the MEPs, which led to the ability of the commons to examine the matter.

BBC News understands that the Minister of Labor decided last autumn that they had to check whether the super-in-in-in tradition should be increased.

The hearings took place in November 2024, and a Senior Mod source announced BBC News that the government's position at this time was that the super-in-in-in tradition should be kept on the spot.

However, the source said that the ministers had privately agreed that a review that was the possibility of termination of super-in-in tradition.

When the super-in-in monitoring was lifted, seven media organizations of the leak were aware and were blocked from publication details.

Additional reporting from Jack Fenwick