Thousands of Afghans were resettled in Britain after a data leak put them in danger

A dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to Britain was released in error in 2022, and extracts were later published online.

LONDON — Thousands of Afghans including many who worked with British forces have been secretly resettled in the U.K. after a leak of data on their identities raised fears that they could be targeted by the Taliban, the British government revealed Tuesday.

The government now plans to close the secret route.

Defense Secretary John Healey said a dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to come to Britain after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was released in error in 2022, and extracts were later published online.

That prompted the then-Conservative government to set up a secret program to resettle the Afghans. The government obtained a court order known as a superinjunction that barred anyone from revealing its existence.

The injunction was lifted on Tuesday in conjunction with a decision by Britain's current Labour Party government to make the program public. It said an independent review had found little evidence that the leaked data would expose Afghans to greater risk of retribution from the Taliban.