Taliban fighters ‘brought to Britain’ in airlift after data leak

Afghans with ‘British blood on their hands’ living in UK after corrupt officials facilitated evacuation of jihadists from Kabul

An exclusive from the Telegraph

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.

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. I read that one Afghan worker brought 22 relatives, and several others family members in ‘the high teens’. Plus the definition of ‘family’ is not confined to the connection of blood or marriage that normal usage would suggest. 

“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 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.

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.

“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.”