Thousands of Afghans secretly moved to Britain after data leak


  • World
  • Wednesday, 16 Jul 2025

Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey attends Britain's Prime Minister's press conference during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025. BEN STANSALL/Pool via REUTERS

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain set up a secret scheme to bring thousands of Afghans to the UK after their personal details were disclosed in one of the country's worst ever data breaches, putting them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban after their return to power.

Concerns that individuals could be targeted by the Taliban led the previous Conservative government to set up the relocation scheme, involving thousands of people and estimated to cost the government about 2 billion pounds ($2.7 billion).

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