Rwanda seeks £100m from UK over axed asylum deal

The Rwandan government says the UK owes it £100m in payments due under an asylum deal canceled by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Rwanda has filed a claim in international arbitration, arguing that the United Kingdom had violated the terms of the agreement to send some asylum seekers to the East African country.

Under the terms of the deal, signed by the previous Conservative government, the UK agreed to pay sums to Rwanda to accommodate asylum seekers who arrived in Britain illegally.

In a statement, the Rwandan government said it had decided to refer its claims to arbitration after being confronted with “the intransigence of the United Kingdom on these issues”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The previous government’s policy in Rwanda wasted huge amounts of taxpayers’ time and money.

“We will vigorously defend our position to protect British taxpayers.”

The Rwandan government statement said it was making three demands regarding the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which was signed in 2022 when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

The statement accused the UK of breaching the deal by publicly exposing the financial terms of the deal, failing to make payments totaling £100 million and “refusing to make arrangements to resettle vulnerable refugees from Rwanda”.

As part of this partnership, the UK had agreed to resettle a small number of vulnerable refugees who were already hosted in Rwanda and had not been sent there from Britain.

In 2022, the Home Office said this is expected to amount to “dozens” of cases, involving people with complex needs, such as acute health conditions.

The previous Conservative government spent some £700 million on Rwandan policy, which aimed to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats.

Only four volunteers arrived in Rwanda when the deal was in force and Sir Keir declared the plan “dead and buried”, shortly after Labor won the 2024 general election.

The agreement included a termination clause, which stated that “either party may terminate this agreement by giving written notice to the other party.”

The £700 million included £290 million in payments to Rwanda.

In December 2024, the Home Office said an additional £100 million would have been due under the treaty, or £50 million in each of the financial years 2025-26 and 2026-27.

In addition, the Home Office agreed to pay £120 million for the transfer of 300 people to Rwanda.

In its statement, the Rwandan government said in November 2024 the UK had asked Rwanda to waive two payments of £50 million which were due in April 2025 and April 2026.

The statement added: “Rwanda has indicated that it is ready to accept these arrangements if the treaty ends, provided that new financial conditions are negotiated and agreed.

“Discussions between Rwanda and the United Kingdom, however, ultimately did not take place and the sums remain due and payable under the treaty.”

The Rwandan government said the UK had “made clear that it did not intend to make any additional payments” under the treaty, nor to honor “its further commitment to make arrangements to resettle some of the most vulnerable refugees hosted in Rwanda in the UK”.

“It is disappointing that Rwanda’s attempts to move the UK out of its entrenched position have failed,” the statement said.

The UK notified Rwanda of the termination of the treaty after responding to the East African country’s arbitration notice in November last year.

Rwanda said the formal termination of the treaty would take effect on March 16, 2026.

The Home Office has been contacted for further comment.

In the treaty signed by Rwanda and the United Kingdom, the two countries agreed that any dispute that could not be resolved between them would be referred to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

The PCA, headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, is a forum for resolving international disputes between states.

This is a process similar to arbitration that companies routinely accept as an alternative to lengthy and potentially damaging court battles.

The PCA has the power to make final and binding decisions if disputes cannot be resolved by the countries involved.

The PCA has not yet indicated how and when Rwanda’s complaint will be addressed.

The arbitration body usually sets a timetable in which the parties specify when they must present their arguments – and cases can take years to resolve.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the legal action was “yet another catastrophic consequence of Labour’s decision to abandon the Rwanda project before it even got started”.

“This legal action means that the British taxpayer now faces a huge bill for Labour’s weakness and incompetence,” Philp said.

He said Labor was “too weak to deliver on this crucial policy, and it is the British taxpayer who must pay the price”.

The British government had previously said it was studying what money could be recouped after the program was scrapped.

But the Rwandan government said it had “no obligation” to repay any money.