Info leak on 18,000 Afghanistan soldiers; UK’s biggest security crisis

DID Press: British Ministry of Defense has faced one of the biggest security crises in its history due to the disclosure of the personal information of more than 18,000 former soldiers and Afghanistan refugees. This information leak could put the lives of many people at risk and has dealt a serious blow to public trust.

In February 2022, a Royal Marine accidentally emailed a file containing sensitive information on more than 18,000 Afghanistan refugees. These people included former Afghanistan soldiers who had worked with British forces and had applied for asylum in this country.

The leaked information not only included the personal data of the refugees, but also information related to British special forces, defense officials and members of parliament. Concerns about the information leak are very serious due to the possibility of targeting these people by the Taliban caretaker government.

However, the British Ministry of Defence was unaware of the scandal for 18 months after it broke, and parts of the information were even published in a Facebook group in August 2023. To prevent the issue from being reported in the media, then Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, asked the High Court for a top secret order that would prohibit even the existence of the order from being disclosed.

This unprecedented move meant that there was no public or parliamentary inquiry into the incident, and only a few senior government officials were aware of the scale of the crisis.

According to reports, since the information was leaked, the Taliban have so far targeted and killed more than 200 former Afghanistan soldiers who had collaborated with the British government. However, the Taliban caretaker government has denied these claims and issued a general amnesty.

When the new government came to power in the UK in July 2024, the newly appointed Defence Secretary was informed of the matter, but the secret order continued.  Meanwhile, an emergency plan to resettle 4,500 vulnerable people has been announced, but other asylum applications have been suspended.

The Hill has warned that the UK government’s use of the judicial system to censor the media and prevent accountability has brought public trust in the government to an all-time low and has fuelled theories of a “hidden state”.

In the years since international forces left Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of Afghanistan soldiers and staff who had worked with foreign governments have been targeted by Taliban militants. Countries including the UK have offered asylum to these individuals.

The leak of confidential information from asylum seekers and former soldiers poses a serious threat to the security of these individuals and their families. The incident has also raised deep concerns about the UK government’s management of data security and transparency