The British government has spent at least £850 million (around $1.1 billion) to covertly resettle thousands of Afghan nationals who had collaborated with the UK and were publicly exposed by a Ministry of Defense data leak, officials confirmed on Tuesday after years of attempting to conceal the blunder.

In February 2022, an unnamed MOD official mistakenly emailed a spreadsheet containing sensitive information on up to 33,000 Afghans. Many had worked alongside British forces during the NATO-led invasion and had applied for asylum after the Taliban seized power.

The breach went unnoticed until 2023, when some of the leaked data – including names, locations, and personal information about applicants and their families – surfaced on Facebook, raising fears that as many as 100,000 individuals could face retaliation as traitors.

To contain the fallout, the UK government imposed a “super-injunction” under the codename Operation Rubific and quietly launched an emergency relocation initiative, the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR), aimed at helping individuals who would otherwise have been ineligible for entry to the UK.

British Defense Secretary John Healey appeared to downplay the incident, stating that only around 900 principal applicants and 3,600 family members had been relocated to Britain “at a cost of £400 million.” He added that the government would still honor invitations extended to another 600 individuals and an unspecified number of their relatives before the ARR was discontinued – bringing the total cost of the emergency scheme to approximately £850 million.

However, a military review cited by The Times revealed that nearly 24,000 people affected by the breach have been resettled in the UK, many through other existing programs.

Altogether, various Afghan relocation efforts could cost British taxpayers up to £6 billion, with £2.7 billion already spent. A pending lawsuit by those affected is expected to cost at least another £250 million.

Healey issued “a sincere apology today on behalf of the British Government” on Tuesday, after a court lifted the reporting restrictions in response to legal challenges demanding greater transparency. “This serious data incident should never have happened,” Healey told MPs, stressing that it occurred “three years ago under the previous government.”