There were “serious failings” in how the Ministry of Defence handled applications from Afghan special forces soldiers to come to Britain, MPs have concluded – two years and a half years after reports BritPanorama revealed how the former commandos had been abandoned.
In a report published by the defence select committee into a Ministry of Defence (MoD) data breach, MPs reviewed how the department managed sanctuary applications from former special forces units, known as the Triples.
They found “material defects” in the handling of the former commandos’ applications, with thousands having their cases rejected without proper investigation in an effort to reduce the backlog.
Officials at the MoD “did not adequately understand or apply the evidence relevant to the Triples’ relationship with the UK,” MPs stated in the report published on Thursday.
The consequences were severe, with hundreds of former commandos, who had fought alongside UK special forces in Afghanistan, being wrongly abandoned following the Taliban’s takeover.
The injustice was first publicly exposed by a joint November 2023 investigation by Lighthouse Reports and Sky News, highlighting that the former commandos faced beatings, torture, or killing by the Taliban.
The Triples had served closely with British forces, receiving salaries directly from the UK government, countering erroneous claims by the MoD to the contrary.
In 2024, the government acknowledged that flawed decision-making had contributed to the denial of sanctuary for these Afghans and pledged to re-examine hundreds of their cases.
When Labour took power, armed forces minister Luke Pollard confirmed that the MoD had been in error regarding the employment status of members of Afghan specialist units and announced a review of approximately 2,000 applications.
By March 2026, when the review concluded, 884 decisions had been overturned, according to the defence committee report. Of the roughly 2,000 cases, about 30 percent were subsequently deemed eligible for relocation due to their roles in assisting British forces, while an additional 300 were flagged due to their data being compromised in the MoD data breach.
The report indicated that “this striking rate of correction” showed the review was necessary, addressing substantial deficiencies in the original decision-making process.
MPs also noted that the MoD “did not adequately understand or apply” evidence pertinent to the Triples’ association with the UK and failed to interrogate their own records.
This background has resulted in the MoD having a special responsibility towards former Triples whose applications were incorrectly refused, many of whom have faced years in hiding due to these failures and subsequent delays.
In April, the MoD informed Afghan families approved for sanctuary that they must escape the Taliban-run country independently.
Campaigners have criticized this approach, arguing it has led to a “two-tier system” whereby those who can afford to flee do so while vulnerable families remain trapped.
The defence committee’s examination included the government’s handling of a MoD data breach, which exposed personal details of tens of thousands of Afghans.
This breach, occurring in February 2022 but only identified in August 2023, was shrouded in an unprecedented superinjunction, which enabled the secret evacuation of thousands of Afghan families.
Person A, an independent caseworker who alerted the MoD to the data leak, argued that the secret pathway established for affected individuals prioritized those with no claims to UK entry over eligible applicants with significant service supporting UK operations.
Concerns remain regarding the large number of eligible Afghans awaiting initial approval to enter the UK, with fears that many applications continue to be incorrectly rejected.
As of 1 June, the MoD’s backlog of Afghan resettlement cases was approximately 14,000 applications, a decrease from 25,000 in July 2025, as detailed by the defence committee.
MPs cautioned that “the government must ensure that pressure to close the programme does not reduce the quality of decision-making.”
In response, the MoD insisted that they are fulfilling the government’s commitment to support eligible Triples who contributed to the UK mission in Afghanistan.
