The paper quotes defence sources as saying that the highly sensitive document contained names and email addresses belonging to people sponsoring or linked to some individual cases. Personal information about MI6 officers was also included:
The identities of members of the SAS and MI6 are a closely guarded secret, and the possibility that following the leak such information could have ended up in the public domain was a source of significant official concern.
SAS and other special forces officers were involved in assessing whether Afghans who said they were members of the elite 333 and 444 units, known as the Triples, were allowed to come to the UK.
Defence sources said the dataset also referred to a “secret route” that Afghans could use to come to the UK.
The paper adds that the leaked data included the names, email and phone numbers for thousands of Afghans who had applied to come to the UK under an existing relocation scheme designed for those who had helped the British military:
In some instances the data contained further written information about their case and status of their application – focused on whether they had in fact helped the UK or British forces in Afghanistan – but it did not contain addresses or photographs.
This week Afghans affected by the breach received a message addressed from the UK government, and sent in English, Pashto and Dari, that warned the recipient’s email address had been used to make a resettlement application and that some personal data may have been compromised.
Details of the breach were limited, but recipients on the email – some of whom remain in hiding from the Taliban in Afghanistan – were advised “not to take phone calls or respond to messages or emails from unknown contacts” and to limit who could see their social media profiles.
Lives could be lost as a result of this leak. Did the government close the relocation scheme prematurely?
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