In early 2022, a Ministry of Defence official accidentally circulated a spreadsheet containing more than 33,000 entries—far beyond the intended 150—including personal information on over 18,700 Afghans who had applied to relocation programs. The breach became known after an excerpt appeared in a Facebook group in August 2023. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace obtained a High Court superinjunction preventing disclosure of the leak, the injunction itself, or the affected relocation operation. It was reportedly the first such order issued to the UK government and applied worldwide.
The Conservative government created the secret Afghanistan Response Route to relocate people exposed by the breach, expanding from roughly 150 intended beneficiaries and their families to an estimated 6,900 people. Court evidence indicated that officials delayed informing Labour’s front bench until after the July 2024 election, excluded the program from published immigration and defence statistics, and used deliberately vague parliamentary statements to control scrutiny. Projected costs reached £850 million by 2025, with potential spending above £2 billion; Defence Secretary John Healey announced the scheme’s closure in July 2025. Justice Jeremy Chamberlain lifted the superinjunction that month, citing the scale of spending, suppressed accountability, and misleading official statements. More than 665 affected people had reportedly begun legal proceedings against the MoD by mid-2025.
