Afghanistan Peace CampaignHolly Bancroft
Social Affairs Correspondent
They were found to be eligible for sanctuary in the UK nine months ago due to his father’s former service alongside UK special forces – but they are still waiting, in fear for their long-term safety, to be brought to the UK.
On Tuesday, along with thousands of others, he received an email from the Ministry of Defence warning him that, due to a data loss in 2022, “some of the personal data associated with this email address may have been compromised”.
As he typed the family’s application reference number into the government’s checking system, a bright red warning sign flashed up alerting him that they were affected by the huge Afghan data leak, which has led to the names and contact information of 18,700 people with links to British forces being shared “in error”.
The catastrophic breach of Afghan applications to the MoD’s resettlement scheme was inadvertently shared by a member of the armed forces, potentially putting 100,000 people at risk of reprisals from the Taliban.
Rayan is one of around 2,000 people who have been evacuated from Afghanistan but haven’t yet arrived in the UK, to have been affected by the leak.
Learning that the breach could have put his family at risk was “an awful experience”, he told The Independent. The Taliban has already burnt down their family home and arrested some family members because of his father’s previous role.
He said: “At the moment, we are in fear of emails from the UK, we are afraid that they will reject us. I saw it said that some data had been released. The second email said we could check if our data had been breached.
“When I checked it, I found that our data was linked. It was a really awful experience. I feel like a ball in a football pitch with everyone kicking us from one side to the other”.
Now he is desperate for an answer to one urgent question: when will they be brought to safety?
The need to leave Pakistan is pressing. Three months ago, the family were arrested by Pakistani police and taken to a deportation centre, sparking fears they would be returned to the hands of the Taliban, he said.
Speaking from his hotel in Islamabad, which is being used by the UK government to house Afghans eligible for sanctuary in Britain, he said: “We have seen 24 families go from Pakistan to the UK but our family has been waiting here. Our visas expired, and at least three times, Pakistani police have tried to capture us.
“Once they arrested all of our family and took us to a deportation centre in Pakistan. It was a Sunday three months ago at around 10pm.
“We were inside our rooms and the manager told us they were asking about our visas. I showed them our permissions from the British High Commission in Pakistan and they said that was unacceptable.”
Rayan said he and his family were then taken to a deportation centre where they were threatened with being sent back to Afghanistan the next day.
Luckily, he was able to pay a police officer to use his phone, and, after several attempts, got through to their caseworker, who confirmed their eligibility to be there.
“After around 30 hours, a diplomat came from the British High Commission and we were allowed out,” he said.
In total, 16 members of his family are now sharing three hotel rooms as they wait for relocation. Two babies have been born in the time that they have spent in limbo in Pakistan, one aged four months and the other seven months.
Each room has only a single bed, he said, leaving the rest of the family to sleep on mattresses on the floor.
With no money and their belongings lost to the fire, they have had to rely on the kindness of others to get by.
“When our children were born, we asked our caseworker if they could help with some supplies for them. We told them that our house had been burned down by the Taliban and we didn’t have any money. The weather was really cold in Pakistan and we didn’t have the money to buy things for our child.
“Unfortunately, we had to go to the other Afghan families, who helped us with some clothes for our daughter. They were a big size, but we didn’t have any other choice”.
When he first received the email from the MoD’s Afghan caseworker team on Tuesday, he was worried it might be retracting his family’s offer of safety.
But there is still no end in sight for the family, who must now continue their agonising wait to find out when they can come to the UK.
As well as those stuck in Pakistan, there are 5,400 people impacted by the data breach who the government has issued invitations to come to the UK, but are still in Afghanistan.
The government has been using hotels in Pakistan to house Afghans eligible to come to the UK for some years. However, the pathway through the country will not be available indefinitely.
In an MoD brief sent to the armed forces minister Luke Pollard on 3 December 2024, officials advised that “the government of Pakistan has stated its desire to end relocations through Pakistan by the end of 2025”.
Referring to the secret resettlement scheme set up in the wake of the data breach, they said: “It is no longer a safe assumption that we will enjoy the support of GOP [Pakistan’s government] for the duration of the programme”.
The Ministry of Defence has been contacted for comment.
