Thousands of Afghans have been relocated to the UK, following the leak of personal data of those who supported British forces.

According to Britain’s Guardian, the secret program, costing £850 million, was put in place after the personal details of 19,000 people who had applied to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Programme (ARAP) were leaked “by mistake” by a Ministry of Defence official in February 2022.

The breach forced officials to create the Afghanistan Response Route program in April 2024.

Already, the program has cost about £400 million, and the total cost, once completed, is expected to reach £850 million. Additional millions are expected to be paid for legal costs and compensation.

The UK Ministry of Defence was made aware of the leak more than 12 months after it was made public, when extracts of the dataset were posted anonymously to a Facebook group in August 2023.