The British authorities hid a billion greenback plan to rescue Afghans who assisted its troops after a knowledge leak compromised uncovered them to Taliban retaliation.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Over the previous two years, the U.Ok. authorities relocated hundreds of Afghans to Britain at a value of a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars}. And it was achieved in secret. As Willem Marx experiences, this system has prompted questions and accusations in Parliament.
WILLEM MARX, BYLINE: In the summertime of 2021, Taliban forces had surrounded the capital Kabul, and hundreds of Afghans who’d labored alongside American, British and different international governments have been afraid they’d face reprisals that might embrace loss of life. They crowded to the airport, some clinging to departing plane.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPLANE ENGINE WHIRRING)
MARX: In response, the U.Ok. authorities rapidly established a brand new program to assist Afghans with hyperlinks to British officers or troops to resettle in Britain. Some 19,000 folks utilized to be relocated underneath that program. Then, in early 2022, an official in Britain’s Ministry of Protection launched their names, contact particulars and household info by mistake, as the previous Protection Minister Ben Wallace defined to the BBC this morning.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BEN WALLACE: That particular person was doing – as I’ve mentioned, within the midst of chaos, was attempting to confirm these purposes. Sure, it was a mistake. Sure, the particular person was discovered accountable. After all I used to be offended with it, however I do take duty and so does the federal government.
MARX: That mistake positioned the lives of those Afghans, lots of them former interpreters for British forces, in danger. It took greater than a 12 months for the British authorities to comprehend that information had been launched. That very same minister, Ben Wallace, received a court docket to insist the breach keep secret, with a publication ban included. And as he established a brand new relocation program in 2023, he made certain that was stored secret too. 4-and-a-half thousand Afghans have since arrived in Britain by way of that route, with extra anticipated. On Tuesday, Britain’s present Protection Secretary John Healey for the primary time detailed a program earlier than the U.Ok. Parliament…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN HEALEY: With permission, Mr. Speaker, I want to make an announcement on a big information safety breach from February 2022.
MARX: …Answering questions that went on for nearly two hours. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer sought to position blame on the opposing Conservative Get together in energy on the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: The protection secretary set out the complete extent of the failings that we inherited – a significant information breach, a brilliant injunction, a secret route that has already value a whole lot of tens of millions of kilos.
MARX: Jim Townsend, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of protection in the course of the Obama administration, advised NPR the actions to relocate these Afghans was not only a ethical obligation for international locations just like the U.Ok. and U.S.
JIM TOWNSEND: It is one thing that now we have to do if we count on to have folks from the native areas the place we’d should function for one motive or one other, if we wish them to assist us. And so we’d like it not only for our personal operations, however it’s the appropriate factor to.
MARX: An preliminary overview commissioned by the present British authorities discovered nobody had died essentially due to the leak, however parliamentary hearings into the information failure and the secrecy it spawned will observe quickly.
For NPR Information, I am Willem Marx.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts might range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its authentic broadcast or publication. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
