Good morning. It has been described as the worst data breach in British history. A British defence official sent an email in 2022 containing the names and details of more than 18,700 people in Afghanistan who had applied for asylum under the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme; but somehow, some of the information on the spreadsheet was later leaked on a Facebook group.
The Afghan people named in that spreadsheet became immediate and obvious targets for reprisals by the Taliban, and so the British government scrambled to resettle 900 individuals affected, along with 3,600 family members. While the resettlement route is now closed, the government has promised to honour 600 invitations already made to any named person still in Afghanistan and their immediate family. The cost of the whole operation is expected to reach £850m.
