Taliban Fighters ‘Brought to Britain’ in Airlift After Data Leak

Former Taliban fighters are living in the UK after being airlifted from Afghanistan on British mercy flights, The Telegraph has been told.

The jihadists were allegedly among thousands of people brought here for their own safety because they were on a leaked list of names of Afghans who had applied to come to the UK.

Sex offenders, corrupt officials and people imprisoned under the US-led coalition are also among those who have been accepted for resettlement in the UK in an apparent failure of vetting procedures. The Telegraph has shared details with British authorities.

Around 6,900 Afghans are being flown to the UK as part of Operation Rubific, the codename for the Government’s response to the 2022 data breach.

A British official wrongly shared the personal details of 25,000 Afghans who had applied to a relocation scheme for those who had fought with British forces during the war in Afghanistan, or worked as translators or in other support roles. Until this month, a High Court super-injunction had prevented the media from reporting anything about the leak or the airlift.

As The Telegraph reported earlier this month, several Cabinet ministers raised serious concerns about Operation Rubific because they were worried about national security, and the latest disclosures appear to justify their stance.

According to multiple senior sources in Afghanistan, the evacuation process was infiltrated by individuals with Taliban connections who exploited the system and got fighters to the UK, including by naming Taliban fighters as family members and dependents who needed to join them here.

“We had civilians in our office who had clear ties with the Taliban,” one Afghan official said. “They were taken to Britain and then introduced fighters as family members and brought them to Britain … some people on the evacuation list named people with clear ties to the Taliban and introduced Taliban people as cousins, and they are in Britain.”

Sources describe a pattern where corrupt Afghan officials, rather than genuine British allies, were facilitating the evacuation of Taliban-connected individuals.

“We had a lot of corrupt officials,” another Afghan official said. “Those corrupt officials are now taking Taliban fighters to Britain rather than those who really worked for the UK. It’s depressing.”

The official claimed that UK personnel often seemed to rely on these corrupt individuals for consultation and recommendations, leading to the inclusion of Taliban-connected people on evacuation lists.

“When my friends see them there, they call and say, ‘Wow, that guy is here’,” one Afghan official said.

The Ministry of Defence has previously confirmed that some Afghans have brought more than 20 people with them as family members.

The Telegraph has been given the names of four alleged Taliban sympathisers who are among those said to have come to the UK under resettlement schemes.

One of them, who came to Britain before the fall of Kabul in 2021, is said to have arranged for several Taliban-linked family members to follow him to the UK. The Ministry of Defence confirmed the man was living in Britain. It did not confirm or deny that he had been followed by family members with alleged links to the Taliban.

A second man, a logistics worker who spent four years in prison for stealing and selling Coalition weapons to the Taliban before being released in the Taliban takeover of Kabul, was currently living in Britain, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

‘They are not good for Britain’

Another case involved an individual who allegedly sexually abused female workers. Defence sources said he had not moved to Britain yet and that his case was being worked through.

The fourth name passed to The Telegraph was that of a British passport holder who allegedly facilitated the evacuation of Taliban-connected individuals by vouching for them under the resettlement scheme.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman did not directly comment on the allegation that the man had brought Taliban sympathisers to the UK, and said only that the vetting process included biographic and document checks and not just personal recommendations.

The Telegraph has previously reported that Robert Clark, a former soldier and reservist who worked on the relocation scheme, said he had been informed by Ministry of Defence personnel that full vetting of applicants secretly brought to the UK had not been completed.

Mr Clark warned there would be significant national security implications for intelligence services and police if proper background checks had not been conducted to determine whether individuals had been radicalised or maintained terrorist connections.

“They are not good for Britain,” said one former senior Afghan official who spoke with The Telegraph.

“They were fighting against British forces and killed lots of Brits, but now are being fed by Brits in London. They have British blood on their hands.”

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