Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, criticized both the Conservative and Labour parties following the revelation that thousands of Afghan refugees were secretly resettled in the country without public awareness.

Farage claimed some of those Afghans are sex offenders, sparking a row with the ruling Labour Party, which denied the claims. 

Around 4,500 Afghans have been relocated to the U.K. so far with around 6,900 expected to be relocated overall.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks during a press conference in Westminster, United Kingdom, June 10, 2025.  (Thomas Krych/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A spreadsheet containing the personal details of nearly 19,000 people who sought relocation to the U.K. after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan was inadvertently released in 2022 due to a defense official’s email mistake. The breach of information came to the government’s attention only when some of the data surfaced on Facebook 18 months later.

“I can’t think of a better example of the total incompetence, dishonesty and genuine lack of understanding of what the priorities of a British government are than this Afghan scandal,” Farage added. 

But U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey denied any known sex offenders had been allowed into the U.K. under the program and insisted everyone had been checked “carefully” for any criminal records

He said if Farage had any “hard evidence,” he should report it to the police.

Demonstrators hold placards as Afghans living in London and their supporters attend a protest called by Stand Up To Racism at the Home Office to demand that more refugees from Afghanistan be allowed into the U.K. Aug. 23, 2021, in London. (Guy Smallman; Getty)

“Anyone who has come into this country under any of the government schemes that was under the previous government and now from Afghanistan is checked carefully for security, checked carefully for any of those sort of criminal records that would preclude and prevent them coming to this country,” Healey told Times Radio, according to The Sun. 

British soldiers were sent to Afghanistan as part of an international deployment against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the war on terror after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At the peak of the operation, there were almost 10,000 U.K. troops in the country, mostly in Helmand province in the south.