Overview

• A February 2022 MoD email accident exposed personal data of nearly 19,000 Afghan local staff, with portions later appearing on Facebook and raising fears of Taliban targeting.
• Under a court-imposed superinjunction, the government ran the Afghanistan Response Route operation to relocate 900 directly affected applicants and 3,600 family members in secret.
• After the High Court lifted the reporting ban on July 15, Defence Secretary John Healey disclosed the program’s scope in Parliament and formally apologised for the data breach.
• The evacuation scheme cost approximately £400 million and could face compensation claims pushing total liabilities above £1 billion.
• An independent review found minimal ongoing Taliban risk to those involved, though political figures have since challenged the program’s transparency and security vetting.