Why did the government hide a data leak about Afghans working with British forces and why did the courts finally reveal it?

By Alexandros Antoniou, Senior Lecturer in Media Law, University of Essex

When thousands of Afghans were quietly flown to the UK under a secret relocation scheme, few knew it was triggered by an error. A defence official had accidentally leaked the personal data of nearly 19,000 Afghan nationals who had worked with British forces and were at risk of Taliban reprisals.

It has now also been revealed that the leaked list contained the identities of UK special forces and spies.

Even fewer knew that this misstep was being kept from the public by a rare and powerful legal…

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