Afghan Rulers Employed Discarded UK Technology to Track Down Afghans Who Worked With Western Troops, Investigation Learns
A whistleblower has revealed a parliamentary probe that the UK abandoned sensitive technology permitting Afghanistan's rulers to track down local individuals who collaborated with allied troops.
Information Leak Puts Thousands in Danger
The source, called Person A, explained that individuals impacted by the information breach were instructed to change residences and alter their phone numbers to avoid detection from the Taliban.
MPs are looking into official management of a catastrophic leak of personal details affecting almost nineteen thousand individuals who had applied to move to Britain to escape the Taliban.
The Information Breach Occurred
An electronic document containing their personal data, comprising identities, contact details and occasionally household data, was mistakenly released by a worker stationed at British military command in early 2022.
The breach became known months later, when details of several individuals who had requested to move to the UK appeared on Facebook.
Militant Technology
Many believe there's a false assumption that Afghan rulers do not have similar capabilities that allied forces use,” the whistleblower testified to the committee.
Technology was deserted in Afghanistan; they possess it. Should they obtain your phone number, they are able to track you down to within metres. This is exactly how intelligence groups did.”
During testimony about if militant forces owned advanced decryption, the source confirmed: “They've got everything.”
Aftermath of the Information Leak
Initial findings provided to the committee estimated that at least 49 family members and associates of people concerned by the leak had been murdered.
A legal restriction regarding the breach was put in force in last year and blocked all details concerning it from being made public until July 2025.
Security Recommendations
Given injunction limitations, Person A and the non-governmental organization she collaborated with advised affected households they were working with that they had “concerns that certain devices had been breached”.
“We advised that they relocate where feasible and altered their phone numbers. These represented the two main details that, if authorities acquired such data, would lead to identification and capture,” she said.
Challenged Assessments
Person A argued that an official review carried out by a retired civil servant had been mistaken to determine that the acquisition of the information by militant forces was “not significantly alter current risk levels”.
“The thing to remember is that these Afghans are in hiding from militant forces; they are in hiding. All concerns relate to former occupations.”
Person A described terrible treatment suffered by affected individuals, involving electric shock torture, waterboarding, and severe beatings.
“There are cases of toddlers who have had their arms broken to try to get households to reveal locations,” Person A stated.
