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UK Secretly Evacuated 4,500 Afghans After Data Leak Threatened Lives
UK evacuated 4,500 Afghans & families in secret after 2022 data breach exposed identities. Taliban denies targeting them, but UN says abuses persist.
ND
by News Desk
2025-07-17
UK Secretly Evacuated 4,500 Afghans After Data Leak Threatened Lives

The UK government has confirmed that it secretly evacuated thousands of Afghans and their families after a 2022 data breach exposed their identities, putting their lives at risk under Taliban rule.

Details of the covert programme, codenamed the Afghan Response Route, were revealed only after the UK High Court lifted a super-injunction that had previously banned any public reporting on the case.

A Silent Operation to Save Lives

UK Defence Minister John Healey stated that around 900 Afghans and 3,600 of their family members have either been brought to Britain or are currently in transit. The operation is reported to have cost £400 million ($535 million).

Healey explained the secrecy:

“We couldn’t reveal the leak because of the risk that the Taliban could access the data set and directly endanger those Afghans.”

The evacuees were among those who had worked alongside British forces, diplomats, and aid agencies during the 20-year NATO presence in Afghanistan. Their association with Western entities made them prime targets after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.

Taliban Denial and Reassurances

Responding to the revelations, Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat claimed there was no cause for concern.

“Nobody has been arrested, killed, or monitored for their past work,” he said.
“All information and documents are already available with our ministries—we don’t need anything from leaked British files.”

Fitrat dismissed concerns as “rumours being spread to create fear.”

While Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had declared a general amnesty in 2021 for former Afghan government and military personnel, human rights groups and the UN have documented numerous violations since.

UN Findings: Amnesty in Name Only?

In its 2023 report, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) cited at least 800 instances of:

  • Extrajudicial killings
  • Arbitrary detentions
  • Torture
  • Enforced disappearances

The documented period covers August 15, 2021 to June 30, 2023.

The Taliban has denied all such allegations, maintaining that all former employees have been pardoned and no retribution is taking place.

Resettlement Progress and Global Context

Britain has accepted around 36,000 Afghan nationals since the Taliban’s return, through various asylum and relocation schemes. The Afghan Response Route is just the latest in a series of emergency efforts following the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021.

Tens of thousands of Afghans were evacuated in the days and weeks after the fall of Kabul, and many more have since resettled in the U.S., Canada, and across Europe.

However, resettlement efforts have drastically slowed in recent years, and many Afghan refugees remain in limbo, stuck in transit countries or facing legal hurdles in host nations.
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