5,000 Afghans secretly brought to UK and housed on MoD bases

More than 5,000 Afghans have been secretly moved to the UK since October and are being housed in military bases across the country, a Whitehall source has revealed.
Operation Lazurite, the Ministry of Defence mission to evacuate former intelligence operatives out of Afghanistan, has offered surplus military housing to thousands of Afghans over the past ten months, including many who survived threats of execution from the Taliban.
A Whitehall source said that the number of Afghans who have entered the country since last autumn had exceeded 5,000, but the figure remained undisclosed under the Conservative government, which wanted to appear tough on migration to voters.
The source confirmed that at least 700 military homes had been set aside for the Afghans in the UK.
About 1,000 people were moved directly to neighbouring Pakistan, with many travelling from Afghanistan on passports issued by the Taliban.
The evacuees included more than 150 Afghans who worked for British intelligence services and were accompanied by their families. They were said to have faced a real risk of being murdered by the Taliban for working alongside British special forces.
The source said that security checks on individuals and their families were being rapidly carried out by the Home Office before sanctuary could be offered.
However, The National, a state-owned newspaper based in Abu Dhabi, said that a separate source had suggested that some of the Afghans being allowed to enter the country included people who served as little as a few days with the British forces during the war in Afghanistan, mainly in Helmand province.
Operation Lazurite was set up in October in response to Pakistan’s mass deportation of Afghans from refugee camps, which left hundreds of thousands of people displaced.
About 4,000, who were approved to receive sanctuary in the UK, were stranded in hotels in Pakistan paid for by the UK in December last year, but they have since been resettled in Britain under the scheme.
It is estimated that about 27,000 Afghans have settled in Britain after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021.
The bases where the Afghans are being housed are Garats Hay, Leicestershire; Larkhill Garrison, Wiltshire; St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan; Cameron Barracks, Inverness; Chickerell Camp, Dorset; Crowborough Camp, West Sussex; and Beachley Barracks on the Welsh border.