The details of a massive data breach by the British military over Afghan nationals have come out this week. But behind the scenes, the fallout has been ongoing for years.
It’s been three years since an unnamed official accidentally shared emails with the names and other details of 18,714 Afghan nationals who were applying for a British government relocation scheme in 2022.
The scheme was to provide asylum for people who had worked with the UK armed forces in the war against the Taliban between 2001 and 2021.
The blunder was only made public on Tuesday after a super-injunction blocking the media from reporting on the breach was removed.
It’s only now that the timeline of the data breach, a subsequent secret government scheme and the super-injunction can all be revealed.
Here’s what the public couldn’t know until now:
April 2021
The Initial scheme to relocate Afghans who helped British military during the war is launched. It was called the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP).
February 2022
The unnamed British official accidentally emails details of 18,714 Afghan nationals who applied to be relocated to the UK outside of a secure government system.
He sends the email in an attempt to verify information, believing the dataset to only contain around 150 rows of information, but it actually contains around 33,000.
14 August 2023
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) discovers the leak after seeing details of the emails had been posted by a Facebook user.
UK officials send around 1,800 ARAP applicants in Pakistan a warning via WhatsApp to say their data may have been breached.
15 August 2023
James Heappey, then armed forces minister, is warned by a civilian volunteer who assists ARAP applicants that the breach may have put those on the list and their families in grave danger.
The volunteer says: “The Taliban may well now have a 33,000-long kill list – essentially provided to them by the UK government.
“If any of these families are murdered, the government…
