Damning Report Exposes MoD's Afghan Resettlement Failures
A devastating parliamentary report has laid bare the Ministry of Defence's systematic failures in handling the resettlement of Afghan nationals who served alongside British forces. The Commons public accounts committee (PAC) revealed what it describes as a toxic cycle of incompetence that put countless lives at risk while bureaucrats attempted to conceal their mistakes.
Casual Cruelty and Systematic Cover-Up
The political reluctance to assist Afghan forces facing potential torture and execution by the Taliban became apparent almost immediately after the hasty evacuation of Kabul in August 2021. According to the PAC findings, this was compounded by what committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown characterised as casual cruelty in the MoD's approach.
The situation was particularly shameful for the Triples - Afghan special forces identified by their numerical regimental designation. Many remain in hiding in Afghanistan, stranded in Pakistan under constant threat of deportation, or attempting dangerous Channel crossings to reach safety.
Catastrophic Data Breaches Endanger Lives
The most alarming aspect of the failure, detailed in excruciating detail by the PAC, involves repeated data breaches that continued even as the MoD claimed to be strengthening protective measures. The most severe incident occurred in February 2022, when a spreadsheet containing 33,000 lines of personal data was emailed to someone outside government.
This catastrophic breach remained undetected until August 2023, when portions of the database surfaced in a Facebook group, creating immediate and severe risks for vulnerable individuals potentially identified by Taliban authorities.
What makes this failure particularly egregious is that the MoD had experienced previous, smaller data breaches but apparently failed to implement adequate safeguards. As the PAC report starkly notes, the department made targeted improvements but continued to experience data breaches.
Secret Evacuation and Financial Chaos
The February 2022 breach prompted the government to seek an unprecedented superinjunction preventing media reporting on the scandal. It also triggered a massive secret evacuation programme for thousands of people whose safety had been compromised.
Ironically, as the National Audit Office highlights, this secret emergency programme resulted in up to £2 billion of public money being spent on various Afghan resettlement schemes without proper parliamentary scrutiny or accountability.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown expressed grave concerns about the potential for repeat failures, stating: We lack confidence in the MoD's current ability to prevent such an incident happening again.
The PAC concludes that while past failures cannot be undone, Defence Secretary John Healey and his colleagues must now ensure affected Afghans are safely settled in Britain while undertaking a thorough review of departmental procedures and what the report describes as an evidently casual culture within the Ministry of Defence.
