THOUSANDS more Afghans could come to the UK after a secret data leak exposed their personal information.
Up to 27,278 people could be resettled in Britain from Afghanistan, nearly 4,000 more than expected, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
A data breach in February 2022 exposed the identities of up to 100,000 Afghans, many of whom had supported UK troops[/caption]
The Taliban threatened to hunt down thousands of Afghan refugees who were leaked on the list[/caption]
A data breach in February 2022 risked the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans who supported UK forces as well as their loved ones, but it was covered up and kept secret by a superinjunction, before being revealed earlier this year.
The Taliban warned in July it would hunt down thousands of Afghan refugees who were detailed on the list, accidentally leaked by a Royal Marine.
Now, there are fears the cost of relocating affected Afghans to the UK could balloon to more than £2 billion.
The NAO has accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of failing to provide “sufficient evidence” so it could be confident in the accuracy of cost estimates for the data breach provided by the department.
Defence officials have pushed the line that it would cost taxpayers around £850 million to bring 7,355 people to the UK under the Afghan Response Route scheme – set up to help those at risk after the data leak.
However, this quoted figure fails to account affected Afghans who have been or will be brought to the UK under other resettlement schemes.
It also misses at least £2.5 million in legal costs and compensation claims.
An NAO estimates that the total cost of all resettlement activity between 2021 and 2029, including the Afghan Response Route scheme, will exceed £2 billion.
About £563 million has already been spent on Afghan resettlement schemes between 2021 and 2022, for those who helped the British military during the war, and between 2024 and 2025 for those who were put at risk because of the data breach.
The MoD expects to spend a further £1.5 billion by March 2029.
The Sun reported in July that more than £450,000 of taxpayer money was being spent every month on relocating Afghans to the UK after the data breach.
Also that month, the MoD estimated that 23,463 people affected by the breach had already been relocated to the UK under two different schemes, including the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap).
The NAO said the total number of applicants could be higher because some people who were rejected initially from Arap had reapplied before the scheme was closed to new applicants in July this year.
According to August Home Office immigration statistics, 3,383 people had arrived in the UK under the Afghan Response Route (ARR) by June this year, roughly half of those who have been accepted for sanctuary.
Due to the way the MoD has recorded figures, however, it was unable to provide the cost for bringing all Afghans affected by the breach to the UK.
The NAO pointed out that it “cannot calculate exactly how much it has spent on the ARR scheme because it did not separately identify the costs in its accounting system”.
Its report said: “At the time of publication, the MoD had not provided us with sufficient evidence to give us confidence regarding the completeness and accuracy of these estimates.”
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Conservative MP and chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said: “Confusion still remains over the reported £850 million historic and future costs relating to the breach, with the MoD unable to provide sufficient assurance over their numbers.”
THOUSANDS OF LIVES PUT AT RISK
The leak came in February 2022 after a soldier emailed a database of 33,000 applications for sanctuary in the UK to Afghans living in Britain.
This list was then passed to those living in Afghanistan, sparking fears it could end up in the hands of the Taliban.
Defence sources said that personal details of MPs, MI6 agents and special forces personnel, who endorsed Afghans who had applied to be brought to the UK, were also released in the email blunder.
Ministers then committed £7 billion in secret to bring Afghans to the UK, but the court order preventing its publicity was lifted in July after Defence Secretary John Healey ordered a review.
Many of the Afghans who were flown into the country as part of Operation Rubific – the secret relocation scheme – were initially housed at MoD homes or hotels until permanent accommodation was found.
The leak put countless of people left in Afghanistan at risk, as the country’s ruthless Taliban rulers tried to hunt and kill anyone who had helped UK forces.
A number of named individuals have been killed since the leak, while others have been tortured and beaten.
Sources have said it is hard to prove conclusively whether the deaths were a direct result of the data breach.
The MoD has insisted the scheme would cost just £850 million, instead of the originally pledged £7 billion from ministers.