UK spends one billion to relocate thousands of Afghan nationals
(MENAFN) The United Kingdom has reportedly spent at least £850 million (roughly $1.1 billion) to quietly relocate thousands of Afghan nationals following a major security breach involving sensitive government data.
According to official sources, the incident dates back to February 2022, when a Ministry of Defense (MOD) staff member mistakenly sent an email containing a spreadsheet with confidential details of up to 33,000 Afghans. These individuals had worked with British forces during the NATO-led intervention in Afghanistan and had applied for asylum after the Taliban regained control of the country.
The breach went undetected until 2023, when some of the information—such as names, locations, and family details—appeared publicly on Facebook. This raised concerns that tens of thousands could be identified as collaborators and face potential threats from the Taliban.
In response, UK authorities implemented a court-issued “super-injunction” and launched a covert emergency relocation operation known as the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). The mission was aimed at extracting those placed in danger by the leak, including individuals who wouldn’t normally qualify for UK resettlement.
British Defense Secretary John Healey addressed the situation by acknowledging that approximately 900 primary applicants and 3,600 of their family members had been resettled in the UK under the program, which cost around $516 million USD. He added that invitations had also been extended to an additional 600 individuals and their families before the program concluded, pushing the total estimated cost of the operation to approximately $1.1 billion USD.
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