The Ministry of Defence managed to turn an Excel cock-up into a secret, costly and dangerous Afghan resettlement disaster.
According to the Independent MPs have dubbed the catastrophic Ministry of Defence data breach a “foreseeable failure” that was hidden behind secrecy for “too long”. The leak exposed the personal details of tens of thousands of Afghans linked to UK forces.
The defence select committee tore into the government’s handling of the breach, the resulting superinjunction and the covert evacuation of Afghan families. The court order was so strict that even mentioning its existence was banned.
The MPs concluded that “secrecy was maintained for too long, accountability was too weak, delivery was too fragmented, and affected Afghans were too often left without the information and support they needed”.
The February 2022 leak exposed details of 18,700 Afghans who said they were at risk from the Taliban because of their links to UK forces. They had applied to escape to Britain, only for Whitehall to drop their names into the wild.
The blunder triggered an unprecedented superinjunction against the national media. It led to a secret evacuation programme whose cost remains unclear, although it is likely to have run into billions of pounds.
The committee found the breach could have been prevented if MoD staff had received basic Excel training. One staff member sent a file outside government, thinking it contained about 150 Afghan applicants, while a hidden tab held details of more than 18,500 others.
By August 2023, when the department discovered the leak, thousands already knew a serious data incident had happened. MPs said the government failed to strike “the right balance between operational secrecy and democratic accountability”.
The secrecy meant affected Afghans could not take steps to protect themselves or their families. It also slowed the evacuation scheme.
As of 9 June 2026, about 7,000 eligible people remained to be relocated to the UK, including 3,700 believed to be in Afghanistan. In April, the MoD told approved Afghan families they would have to flee the Taliban-run country by themselves.
MPs said this created a “two-tier system” where those with enough cash could move, while vulnerable and destitute families were stranded.
“The government has not adequately explained how it will protect eligible Afghans who cannot safely, lawfully or affordably self-move to a third country for UK entry-clearance checks. This is a serious gap in the current model”.
Defence committee chair Tan Dhesi said: “The latest ‘self-move’ policy risks excluding people the UK has promised to help, including some who should have been brought here years ago. The broader picture is deeply troubling. The MoD should stick to defence – it should never have been left to run immigration casework schemes. Secrecy has been too easily used as a shield against proper accountability in areas far removed from sensitive operations.”
Independent caseworker Person A, who warned the government about the breach in summer 2023, called for ministers to “immediately reinstate third party support for approved families trying to escape from Afghanistan”.
“It is immoral to make our promise to resettle these families contingent on their ability to secure large loans at short notice. We owe these men and women a debt of honour, and it’s time to move heaven and earth to keep the promises we made.”
