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A whistleblower has disclosed a parliamentary probe that the UK abandoned sensitive devices allowing Afghanistan's rulers to track down local individuals who worked with allied troops.

Information Leak Puts Thousands in Danger

Person A, identified as Person A, stated that people concerned by the security lapse were instructed to relocate and switch their contact details to protect themselves from militant forces.

Lawmakers are looking into official management of a massive disclosure of confidential data concerning approximately 19k individuals who had asked to relocate to the United Kingdom to escape the Taliban.

The Information Breach Happened

A spreadsheet including confidential details, such as names, addresses and in some cases family information, was mistakenly released by a worker working at British military command in early 2022.

The leak became known only in August 2023, when the names of multiple applicants who had applied to move to Britain surfaced on online platforms.

Militant Technology

“There seems to be this misconception that militant forces lack the same sort of facilities that western nations possess,” the whistleblower testified to the committee.

All equipment was abandoned in Afghanistan; it's in their hands. Once they acquire a contact number, they can trace your precise location. That is what the unit did.”

Under inquiry about if militant forces owned necessary encryption, the whistleblower confirmed: “They have complete capability.”

Consequences of the Information Leak

Preliminary research provided to the inquiry suggested that approximately fifty relatives and co-workers of people concerned by the leak had been executed.

A superinjunction about the leak was put in force in late 2023 and blocked any information concerning it from public disclosure until July 2025.

Safety Measures

Given injunction limitations, Person A and the non-governmental organization associated with informed affected households they were working with that they had “concerns that certain devices had been compromised”.

“We recommended that they change residence where feasible and switched their mobile numbers. These represented the crucial data that, if the Taliban acquired this information, would result in their location being found,” the source testified.

Challenged Assessments

Person A contested that an official review performed by an ex-government employee had been wrong to determine that the possession of the information by the regime was “not significantly alter present danger”.

“The thing to remember is that affected people are in hiding from the Taliban; they are in hiding. All concerns relate to former occupations.”

Person A described disturbing abuse experienced by at-risk Afghans, including electrocution, waterboarding, and severe beatings.

“Instances include young kids who have had limbs fractured to force the family to reveal locations,” she testified.