ACCORDING to Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), a Ministry of Defence data breach in February 2022 exposed sensitive personal information relating to approximately 18,700 Afghan nationals who had assisted UK forces and applied for protection. The breach was not publicly disclosed for nearly two years, and from September 2023 a High Court super-injunction prohibited reporting on the breach and, initially, on the existence of the injunction itself.
AOAV’s analysis traces the fallout from this human cost to its wider institutional and strategic consequences, and evaluates the government’s response to what the report calls human error. The key findings include that the breach placed thousands of Afghan partners and their families in peril, with 87% of those notified reporting direct threats to their safety and nearly half reporting a direct threat to their life (RLS, 2025b).
At least 49 relatives or colleagues of affected Afghans have been killed in incidents linked to Taliban reprisals following the leak (RLS, 2025b), and 89% reported harm to their mental or physical health, as well as that of their families. Many affected individuals remain in hiding or separated from loved ones.