At the mercy of the Taliban is tens of thousands of Afghans After the British government’s leakage of personal data.

A massive breach of data from the British Ministry of Defense has put the lives of about 20,000 Afghan nationals, and their families “at risk of serious violence”, as it was revealed.

Details of the mistake can finally be made public, as a judge traveled a legal block requested by the government.

The legal company Barings Law accused the Ministry of Defense of trying to hide the truth from public opinion.

In addition to human costs, the scandal will probably force the British government – that is, taxpayers – to pay large sums of money to compensation and support for those affected.

The British government is expected to make a statement to Parliament soon, Sky News said.

Fiasco is believed to have been caused by careless handling An email containing a list of names and other details of about 20,000 Afghan nationals who were trying to apply to a British government program to support those who helped or worked with the British forces in Afghanistan who fought the Taliban between 2001 and 2021.

The collapse of the West -backed Afghan government that year led the Taliban to return to power. The new government considers as a traitor who has worked with British or other foreign forces in the previous two decades as a traitor.

The source said that a small number of people named on the list is known that the data later, although it is not clear whether this was immediate result of the data breach.

It is also not clear if the Taliban have the list.

Adnan Malik, Head of Data Protection at Barings Law, said: “This is an incredibly serious breach of data, which the Ministry of Defense has repeatedly tried to hide from the British public.

“It includes the loss of personal and identification information about Afghan nationals who helped British forces fight terrorism and support security and stability in the region.

“A total of about 20,000 people have been affected, putting their loved ones at a serious risk of violence by opponents and armed groups.”

The law firm works with about 1,000 of those who have been influenced “to carry out potential legal action”.