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Did the UK Government spend £7bn to cover up the secrete Afghan refugee scheme?
A secret scheme to relocate to the UK thousands of Afghans put at risk by a data breach has been revealed, after a legal block on reporting it was lifted.
The news led to significant anger on social media, with prominent accounts criticising the amount of people coming to the UK. Some claimed the scheme meant the UK would support the Afghani refugees for life, and that the “cover up” had cost £7bn.
UK Government deal with Afghans includes agreement to support them financially for the rest of their lives… £7bn already spent to cover this up.
Online posts
Ferret Fact Service looked at these claims.
The details of a secret settlement scheme for Afghani nationals were revealed last week by the UK Government. It was the result of a huge data leak that threatened to put those who worked with UK armed forces in Afghanistan at risk.
Three years ago, details of 18,714 Afghani citizens who had applied for a UK Government relocation scheme were accidentally shared by a defence official – which media has reported was a junior soldier – and later posted onto a Facebook group.
The scheme, called the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was launched in April 2021, aiming to assist Afghans who assisted the UK Government in its war against the Taliban with safe passage to the UK, as the militant Islamist group regained control over Afghanistan.
The data breach took place nearly a year later in February 2022, under Boris Johnson’s Conservative government, but it wasn’t until 2023 that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) became aware of the leak. Concerns were raised that the breach could put the Afghani applicants in danger, with an ARAP volunteer saying the Taliban could have a “kill list – essentially provided to them by the UK government”.
In December 2023, when Rishi Sunak was prime minister, a High Court injunction was put in place, preventing any reporting of the data breach. The MoD said the government needed four months to “do everything it reasonably can to help those who might have been put at further risk”.
The government then set up the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) – a secret scheme to relocate those involved in the leak.
The injunction was then extended repeatedly after a series of challenges by the MoD, and continued after Labour won the general election in July 2024. It was lifted on 15 July 2025, after an independent review. On the same day, defence secretary John Healey announced the route would be closing.
After the details of the scheme were revealed, a number of claims began to be shared on social media opposing the resettlement and the secretive nature of the scheme.
The ARR scheme has so far relocated 900 people on the breached data list, as well as 3,600 family members. A further 600 invitations have been made to Afghan nationals and their families, which the UK Government said they would honour. The MoD said that, in total, 6,900 people will have come to the UK under ARR.
About 36,000 Afghans have come to the UK overall through its various relocation schemes.
The schemes offer indefinite leave to remain, which means those who come to the UK can stay permanently should they choose to. There has also been financial integration assistance put in place, under the previous Conservative government’s ‘Operation Warm Welcome’, which was put in place “to ensure Afghans arriving in the UK receive the vital support they need to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education and integrate into their local communities”.
This includes additional school places for families, university scholarships, and language classes. Extra funding was also put in place to help to fund NHS treatment and assistance for rented housing.
The Afghani nationals settling in the UK will not get guaranteed financial support for their whole lives, however, and will need to find employment and can only access government benefits in the same way as any UK resident, if they achieve citizenship.
The defence secretary told the UK Parliament the ARR scheme had cost £400m so far, and that he expected the resettlement of the 600 people still to take place would cost “a similar sum”.
However, journalist Lewis Goodall, one of the journalists whose reporting was blocked by the injunction said documents seen in court suggest the numbers of people being resettled could be much higher, and the projected cost could be an underestimate.
The £7bn figure was reported in the media, allegedly coming from an official submission suggesting the cost of the scheme could rise to £7bn. It did not say the money had already been spent. The defence secretary told MPs this was “a previous estimate” and related not just to the ARR scheme but “an estimate of the total cost of all government Afghan schemes for the entire period in which they may operate”.
He later clarified that the total cost of all the Afghan relocation schemes so far was “around £2.7bn”. The expected cost over the lifetime of these schemes was between £5.5bn and £6bn
Ending the scheme would, he said, save £1.2bn for the taxpayer and result in about 9,500 fewer Afghans coming to the UK.
Hundreds of protected areas are under pressure from Scotland’s massive deer herd. Most agree deer numbers must be controlled to protect the environment, but are split on what should be done.
Edinburgh University students were “interrogated” by police at their desks over posters featuring Palestinians killed by the Israeli military, prompting dozens to complain.
Unsafe levels of faecal bacteria were recorded at dozens of Scotland’s best beaches this summer. Swimmers and paddlers could be at risk, but officials insist water quality remains high.
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