fears that the Taliban could target them, the British government revealed on Tuesday. The government said it is closing the programme, which a rare court order had barred the media from disclosing. “To all those whose information was compromised, I offer a sincere apology today,” De-fence Secretary John Healey said in the House of Commons. He said he regretted the secre-cy and “have felt deeply concerned about the lack of transparency to Parliament and the public”.

Healey told lawmakers that a spreadsheet containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who had applied to come to Britain after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was accidentally released in 2022 because of a defence official’s email error. The govern-ment only became aware of the leak when some of the data was published on Facebook 18 months later. The then Conservative government sought a court order barring disclosure of the leak, in an attempt to prevent the personal information being made public any further. The High Court issued an order, known as a super injunction, that barred anyone from re-vealing its existence. The government then set up a secret programme to resettle the Af-ghans judged to be at greatest threat from the country’s Taliban rulers. The injunction was lifted on Tuesday in conjunction with a decision by Britain’s current Labour Party govern-ment to make the programme public. (Jamaica Gleaner)