exfiltration

A secret operation to get a defector or source out of a country where they are in danger.

The CIA glossary uses the term exfiltration: a secret operation to remove a defector or source from a country where they face harm or capture. The opposite is infiltration.¹

Operation PIMLICO (1985): according to a review in Studies in Intelligence, the KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, an SIS agent, called for help after falling under suspicion. On 19 July 1985 he left Moscow via Leningrad towards Finland; he crossed the border on 21 July hidden in the boot of a car and travelled on through Norway to the United Kingdom.²

Argo (1980): according to the CIA, six American diplomats who had taken refuge with Canadian diplomats after the US Embassy in Tehran was seized on 4 November 1979 were taken out of the country as a supposed Canadian film crew, with Canadian passports. The plan was drawn up by CIA officer Tony Mendez; President Carter approved it on 23 January 1980, and on 28 January the group flew out of Mehrabad airport. The CIA’s role was made public in 1997, on the agency’s 50th anniversary.³