FILE PHOTO: Refugees from Afghanistan wait to be processed after arriving on an evacuation flight at Heathrow Airport, in London, Britain August 26, 2021. Dominic Lipinski/Pool via REUTERS/ File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's defence ministry does not know how exactly much it will cost to relocate thousands of Afghans after a massive data leak, the government's spending watchdog said, adding it did not have confidence in the current estimate of 850 million pounds.
In July, it was revealed that Britain had set up a secret scheme in 2022 to bring Afghans back to the UK after their personal details were leaked, putting them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban after their return to power.
The incident ranks among Britain's worst security breaches ever due to the cost and risk posed to the lives of thousands of Afghans, some of whom fought alongside British forces against Taliban insurgents until their chaotic withdrawal in 2021.
In a report released on Wednesday, the National Audit Office said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) could not calculate how much it had spent on the Afghanistan Response Route scheme, and cast doubt on the 850-million-pound ($1.15 billion) figure for total costs, which did not include possible claims for compensation.
"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," the report said.
The leak occurred in early 2022 after an MoD official accidentally emailed details of about 18,700 people seeking resettlement to someone outside the defence ministry, with the data then published on Facebook the following year.
Both the breach and the relocation programme were then subject to a so-called court superinjunction which prevented the media from reporting what happened.
That restriction was lifted in July when Defence Secretary John Healey issued an apology, acknowledging that the leak included information about lawmakers and senior military figures who supported Afghan allies seeking refuge in the UK.
In its report, the NAO said it was estimated that 7,355 people would need to be resettled through the ARR scheme, and that up to 27,278 people, relocated to Britain under the ARR or another existing programme for Afghans who had worked for or with the British government, had been affected by the leak.
($1 = 0.7402 pounds)
(Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Mark Heinrich)
