US Edition
MoD braced for £1bn compensation bill over Afghan data leak scandal
UNITED KINGDOM, JUL 17 – Nearly 20,000 Afghans who aided UK forces had their data leaked by the Ministry of Defence, exposing them to Taliban threats and prompting legal claims and relocation efforts.
- In February 2022, a British defence official accidentally exposed the personal information of almost 19,000 Afghans seeking to relocate to the UK following the Taliban's rise to power.
- The leak prompted fears the Taliban accessed the list, leading to a super-injunction that a High Court judge ruled should be lifted on 21 May 2024 to protect at-risk individuals.
- Following the breach, the government secretly launched Operation Rubific in 2023 to airlift about 4,500 people to Britain and created a special unit to find others and prevent Taliban targeting.
- The Ministry of Defence expects compensation claims with potential payouts upwards of five figures per person, though it calls a £1 billion bill "pure speculation," while a Taliban official confirmed they accessed the list online early on.
- The breach revealed serious failings that left many allied Afghans vulnerable, triggered legal action by nearly 900 ready to sue, and pressured the government to defend itself amid ongoing resettlement efforts.
16 Articles
16 Articles
My focus was on saving lives after Afghan data breach, Shapps says
Former defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps has defended the decision to keep secret a data breach involving the details of thousands of Afghans and some British officials.In his first interview since it became public, Sir Grant told the BBC erring on the side of caution was “entirely justified”, adding his focus had been “sorting out the mess and saving lives”.Many people were judged to be at risk of serious harm or even death as the Taliban soug…
Top Tory Grant Shapps claims Afghan data breach kept secret over risk of executions - The Mirror
In his first comments since news of an unprecedented superinjunction was made public, the ex-Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said his focus was on 'sorting out the mess and saving lives'
Afghan employees of the Allies and whose identities were revealed by a British Government ruling in 2022 fear for their safety and that of their families and feel betrayed by the country for which they risked their lives The Taliban law that is killing women and babies in Afghanistan: “I begged them, my daughter was dying” These are the voices of Afghans whose data were included in a 2022 leak from the British Government and made public on Tuesd…
Data-Breach Afghans To Sue British State
The UK government is facing a multi-million-pound class action-style lawsuit from Afghans affected by the largest data breach in British history. As lawyers prepare to sue for compensation, the British public is astonished at the scale of government incompetence—including an unprecedented superinjunction and resettling thousands of Afghans in Britain without any meaningful or democratic consultation. At the time of writing, Manchester lawyers Ba…
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