United Kingdom

Reports: Information on UK Spies, Special Forces Included in Afghan Data Leak

JUL 17 2025·Updated JUL 18 2025

Story

Above: The headquarters of the MI6, on the River Thames in London, U.K., on July 3, 2025. Image credit: Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Facts

British defense sources report that, included in the recent leak of the personal details of tens of thousands of Afghans who applied for asylum, were the details of British spies, special forces operatives, and members of Afghan special forces at risk of Taliban reprisal.
Daily Mail
Independent
The information of more than 100 British citizens affiliated with MI6, SAS, and others were included in the dataset due to them vouching for Afghans applying for relocation. The dataset of almost 19,000 Afghans was accidentally released in 2022, with portions of it circulating on Facebook.
Sky News
Guardian
The U.K. Ministry of Defence became aware of the leak in 2023 and was granted a super-injunction by the High Court, criminalizing both the disclosure of any leaked information or the existence of the order itself. This was the first super-injunction ever requested by the government against the press.
BBC News
Express.co.uk
Al Jazeera
After the leak, the U.K. government instituted a clandestine relocation policy that moved 4,500 Afghans to Britain, with the government later claiming that it had little evidence that the dataset put the Afghans who worked with Western forces put at risk of Taliban reprisal.
The Hill
The Sun
Al Jazeera
The identities of those in British security and intelligence services are closely guarded, with the data including the identities of a major general and a brigadier. Defense Secretary John Healey apologized on Tuesday for the breach and relocation scheme, projected to cost £850 million ($1.1 billion).
Daily Mail
www.ft.com
GB News
Another 2,400 Afghans are expected to arrive in the U.K. before the program Afghanistan Response Route closes, while another 14,000 in another program have arrived or are in transit. The Taliban has denied arresting any Afghans in the dataset and the MoD has declined to say how many Afghans may have been harmed.
The Telegraph
BBC News

Sources Split

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The Spin

Government-critical narrative

The Afghan data leak is a disaster that continues to unfold. The integrity of the U.K.'s intelligence services has been jeopardized due to the incompetence of the Conservative government, and the Labour government must live up to the task by being as transparent as possible. The fact that this was kept secret for so long is a searing indictment of freedom and openness in the U.K., with the use of a super-injunction being a draconian means of covering up this mess.

Guardian

Independent

Pro-government narrative

The super-injunction was necessary for precisely this reason — to protect the lives and identities of those at risk. While the media called for the heads of all involved, the secrecy was needed until the government could ascertain the risk posed, which proved to be minimal. This was no mere cover-up, and the focus now needs to be on shoring up the integrity of British security services.

Forces News

The Telegraph

Narrative C

Without the consent or knowledge of the voting public, tens of thousands of migrants were ferried into the nation at great U.K. taxpayer expense, who were never included in immigration statistics. As the people fight for the nation to get a grip on migration, this blunder has now dropped thousands of unvetted and sometimes criminal migrants into the country, an unacceptable breach of the nation's trust.