We were lucky to escape Afghanistan alive nine months later were still waiting to be brought to safety

peconfigsaAriaclosedTextppRayan and his family have spent the past 271 days staring at the same four walls of their cramped and sparse hotel room in PakistanppThey were found to be eligible for sanctuary in the UK nine months ago due to his fathers former service alongside UK special forces but they are still waiting in fear for their longterm safety to be brought to the UKppOn Tuesday along with thousands of others he received an email from the Ministry of Defence warning him that due to a data loss in 2022 some of the personal data associated with this email address may have been compromisedppAs he typed the familys application reference number into the governments checking system a bright red warning sign flashed up alerting him that they were affected by the huge Afghan data leak which has led to the names and contact information of 18700 people with links to British forces being shared in errorppThe catastrophic breach of Afghan applications to the MoDs resettlement scheme was inadvertently shared by a member of the armed forces potentially putting 100000 people at risk of reprisals from the TalibanppRayan is one of around 2000 people who have been evacuated from Afghanistan but havent yet arrived in the UK to have been affected by the leakppLearning that the breach could have put his family at risk was an awful experience he told The Independent The Taliban has already burnt down their family home and arrested some family members because of his fathers previous roleppHe said At the moment we are in fear of emails from the UK we are afraid that they will reject us I saw it said that some data had been released The second email said we could check if our data had been breachedppWhen I checked it I found that our data was linked It was a really awful experience I feel like a ball in a football pitch with everyone kicking us from one side to the otherppRayan and his family have been waiting nine months for the UK to relocate them to safety The IndependentppNow he is desperate for an answer to one urgent question when will they be brought to safetyppThe need to leave Pakistan is pressing Three months ago the family were arrested by Pakistani police and taken to a deportation centre sparking fears they would be returned to the hands of the Taliban he saidppSpeaking from his hotel in Islamabad which is being used by the UK government to house Afghans eligible for sanctuary in Britain he said We have seen 24 families go from Pakistan to the UK but our family has been waiting here Our visas expired and at least three times Pakistani police have tried to capture usppOnce they arrested all of our family and took us to a deportation centre in Pakistan It was a Sunday three months ago at around 10pmppWe were inside our rooms and the manager told us they were asking about our visas I showed them our permissions from the British High Commission in Pakistan and they said that was unacceptableppRayan said he and his family were then taken to a deportation centre where they were threatened with being sent back to Afghanistan the next dayppThousands of Afghans were evacuated in a covert operation after the catastrophic data leak which led to the names and contact information of 18700 people being shared in error The IndependentppLuckily he was able to pay a police officer to use his phone and after several attempts got through to their caseworker who confirmed their eligibility to be thereppAfter around 30 hours a diplomat came from the British High Commission and we were allowed out he saidppIn total 16 members of his family are now sharing three hotel rooms as they wait for relocation Two babies have been born in the time that they have spent in limbo in Pakistan one aged four months and the other seven monthsppEach room has only a single bed he said leaving the rest of the family to sleep on mattresses on the floorppWith no money and their belongings lost to the fire they have had to rely on the kindness of others to get byppWhen our children were born we asked our caseworker if they could help with some supplies for them We told them that our house had been burned down by the Taliban and we didnt have any money The weather was really cold in Pakistan and we didnt have the money to buy things for our childppUnfortunately we had to go to the other Afghan families who helped us with some clothes for our daughter They were a big size but we didnt have any other choiceppWhen he first received the email from the MoDs Afghan caseworker team on Tuesday he was worried it might be retracting his familys offer of safetyppBut there is still no end in sight for the family who must now continue their agonising wait to find out when they can come to the UKppAs well as those stuck in Pakistan there are 5400 people impacted by the data breach who the government has issued invitations to come to the UK but are still in AfghanistanppThe government has been using hotels in Pakistan to house Afghans eligible to come to the UK for some years However the pathway through the country will not be available indefinitelyppIn an MoD brief sent to the armed forces minister Luke Pollard on 3 December 2024 officials advised that the government of Pakistan has stated its desire to end relocations through Pakistan by the end of 2025ppReferring to the secret resettlement scheme set up in the wake of the data breach they said It is no longer a safe assumption that we will enjoy the support of GOP Pakistans government for the duration of the programmeppThe Ministry of Defence has been contacted for commentppThis who yall voted forppYes it has to do with the Epstein filesppPolice officers are considering taking legal action over the plans surrounding Donald Trumps visit to Scotland later this weekppThey also called out Marco Rubio at the same timeppTrump alleged that Carlson phoned him to say sorry after they had a public falling out on a key issueppDead by suicide Detained on a private jet Sentenced to more than a 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