Afghan asylum scheme branded a 'monumental cock-up' as Westminster warned of 'further damage to public trust'

Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed on Tuesday that a data breach under the Conservative Government released the personal details of almost 19,000 Afghans, who were working in support of British troops.

The Government then relocated 6,900 Afghans, including family members, to Britain at the cost of £850million, but scheme was covered up under a superinjunction.

Reacting to the cover up of the scheme, Social Policy Analyst Dr Rakib Ehsan told GB News: "This is a monumental cock-up of epic proportions.

"If one had to design a scandal that could do tremendous damage to public trust and confidence in the British state, it would be this one.

"When you look at this scandal, firstly, it started off with this inadvertent data leak, which exposed the personal details of Afghans who may have been at risk of Taliban led persecution.

"But I think with the secret resettlement route, this is truly unprecedented."

Noting the current state of sensitivity on issues such as illegal migration and social cohesion, Ehsan added: "Especially when it comes to sensitive matters of immigration and asylum that is responsible for much of the rapidly diminishing trust we see in politics and Westminster in particular, this episode could do a great deal of damage when it comes to institutional trust.

"The issue here with this resettlement scheme, which was ultimately a form of establishment secrecy, civil society was not able to scrutinise those plans, especially from an integration and social cohesion perspective."

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Pointing out the threat to "social cohesion" with the influx of relocated Afghans, Rakib claimed: "It seems like the areas where many of the new arrivals from Afghanistan have been relocated are some of the more deprived parts of the country, so there's obviously that threat in terms of social cohesion potentially unravelling in those areas.

"And I think that some people have already made the connection that there is a bit of an overlap between those areas where we saw last summer's violent disorder and the high number of Afghans being relocated to those parts of the country."

Weighing in on the scandal, Human Rights Lawyer Shoaib Khan said although there is risk to social cohesion, it is "up to the Government" to manage.

Khan said: "Obviously that risk is there, but that's up to the Government to manage.

"But I think the important thing has to be for the Government to actually share the burden among different boroughs, among different areas, among different regions and different cities.

"But we do see large concentrations of asylum seekers or immigrants and hotels housing them in certain areas, and obviously that causes a burden on those particular boroughs without the central Government actually supporting them properly. And of course, that's going to cause tensions."

Asked by host Emily Carver if British taxpayers can "afford" to pay for the mistake the "Conservative Government made", Ehsan declared that trust in Westminster is at an "all time low" amongst Britons.

He concluded: "For a very long time, asylum seekers had been disproportionately rehomed in some of the poorest parts of the country.

"Now, much of that is justified on the grounds that the housing costs are lower there, but we're ultimately talking about relatively left behind communities.

"Some of these communities have been starved of meaningful investment for decades, and if you see in those communities, there's a great deal of resentment within them, especially when it comes to how migrants have been rehomed in some four star hotels a great expense to the British taxpayer in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

"But I think that the key problem here is a matter of institutional trust. I think that trust in Westminster is at an all time low, especially when it comes to matters of immigration, asylum, and this particular scandal certainly won't help with that at all."