UK will not have to pay Rwanda millions of pounds over failed migrant deal

The UK will not have to pay Rwanda millions of pounds over the failed migrant deportation deal after winning an international court case.

Rwanda sued Britain for more than £100 million, claiming it breached the terms of its agreement and is owed money.

Lawyers representing Britain argued at a hearing in March at The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands that it was “entirely logical” the plan would be scrapped when Labour came into power after the 2024 general election and that it was “simple common sense” that no further payments would be due.

According to legal documents, Rwanda asked the court to find the UK in breach of the agreement and demanded payment of all outstanding sums and compensation.

But the UK denied it had breached the deal and said that the east African nation “is not entitled to any of the forms of relief it seeks” when asking the court to dismiss the claims.

Earlier this year, Downing Street defended the decision to scrap the scheme, brought forward by the former Conservative government, when it emerged that Rwanda was taking the UK to court.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declared the plan “dead and buried” as one of his first moves in office.

Before the election, Rishi Sunak’s government had already spent £700 million on its flagship immigration policy, where migrants who arrived in the UK by boat from France would be sent straight to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, in an attempt to deter Channel crossings.

Ultimately, only four volunteers arrived in Rwanda before the plan was scrapped.

Rwanda’s minister of justice and attorney general, Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, previously told the court the country incurred “significant costs” in preparation for the deal but the UK “then sought to walk away from its legal obligations”.

He also said the UK “did not do Rwanda a courtesy of informing it in advance” that it was scrapping the deal, and leaders were “left to read about this development in the media”.

Despite this, in 2024, Rwandan President Paul Kagame suggested British taxpayers’ money could be repaid if the deal failed.

In a document setting out Rwanda’s claim, Ugirashebuja asked the court to rule that the UK had breached the agreement and should pay about £100 million that it was due to receive in two instalments in 2024 and 2025, plus £6 million in compensation and interest.

Instead of compensation, he said Rwanda would accept a formal apology from the UK for failing to honour parts of the deal.