Immigration reporter, Daily Dawn, Dawn TV report
London: The British government revealed that thousands of Afghans who had worked with British citizens in the past were brought to the country under a secret program after sensitive government information was revealed in 2022.
The British government has revealed that thousands of Afghans, including those who worked with British soldiers, have been secretly resettled in the UK.
These Afghans were resettled in the UK after their identity data was leaked due to concerns that the Taliban could target them.
Now the current British government has decided to end the secret plan started by the previous government.
Defence Secretary John Healey says that ‘19,000 Afghans applied to come to the UK after the Taliban took control of Kabul.’
According to him, ‘the data of these people was accidentally released in 2022 and later this information was published online.’
After this data was leaked, the then Conservative government decided to resettle Afghans in the country through a secret program.
The government also obtained an order from the court, known as a supreme injunction, under which each of these people was obliged not to reveal their presence.
On Tuesday, the injunction was lifted after the current Labour government in the UK decided to make the program public.
The decision said that after an independent review, there was little evidence that the Taliban could take retaliatory action against these Afghans after the data was leaked.
British Defense Secretary John Healey told lawmakers in the House of Commons that he was “deeply concerned about the lack of transparency in Parliament and the public.”
About 4,500 people, 900 applicants and about 3,600 family members were brought to the UK under this secret program.
It is estimated that by the end of the program, 6,900 people will be transferred to the UK, at a cost of 850 million pounds ($1.1 billion).
About 36,000 Afghans have been transferred to the UK under the resettlement plan.
It should be noted that after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, British forces were sent to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
At the height of the coalition operation in Afghanistan, 10,000 British troops were there, most of them deployed in the southern province of Helmand.
It should be noted that the British government ended its military operation in Afghanistan in 2014.
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