The refugee deportation crisis between Britain and Rwanda worsens

Written by Ziad Abdel Fattah:

The Permanent Court of Arbitration said on Monday that Britain It is not obliged to pay around £100 million to Rwanda, due to the cancellation of a deal to deport asylum seekers to the East African country.

The body, which is based at the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, said it had rejected all financial claims made by Rwanda, which alleged that Britain still needed to fulfill the terms of the agreement that Prime Minister Keir Starmer cancelled in 2024.

Starmer cancelled the asylum scheme drawn up by the previous Conservative government, under which the government was to pay Rwanda for accepting migrants who arrived in Britain illegally.

Rwanda was demanding £60 million.

Court documents showed that Kigali was claiming at least £60 million ($80 million).
The court said the three-judge panel found by majority vote that Rwanda had agreed in November 2024 in diplomatic notes “to waive any further payments by the United Kingdom in April 2025 and April 2026.”.

It is worth noting that only 4 people went to Rwanda voluntarily under the asylum agreement, which faced legal challenges before it was cancelled.

The Rwandan government said it respects the court's decision, but said the issues are complex and open to different legal interpretations.

Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said in a statement that Rwanda will continue to work constructively with international partners, guided by international standards and mutually beneficial cooperation.

A spokesman for the previous government said that the previous government's policy wasted £700 million of taxpayers' money to send 4 volunteers to Rwanda.

Relations between Britain and Rwanda deteriorated last year when London suspended some aid because of Rwanda's role in the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda is facing international pressure over accusations of supporting the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo.

Kigali denies supporting the M23 movement and has blamed Congolese and Burundian forces for the fighting that killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands last year.

The UK-Rwanda asylum agreement was one of the most controversial immigration policies in Europe in recent years, before it was abolished in 2024. The agreement was first announced in April 2022 under former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and stipulated that some asylum seekers who entered Britain irregularly would be transferred to Rwanda to have their asylum claims considered there instead of in Britain. If they were granted refugee status, they would remain in Rwanda and not in the United Kingdom.

The aim was to deter irregular migration across the English Channel, combat human smuggling networks, and reduce pressure on the British asylum system. However, the plan faced widespread objections from human rights organizations and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who considered that transferring asylum seekers to a third country raised legal and humanitarian concerns and contradicted international refugee protection principles.

In 2023, the British Supreme Court ruled that the plan, in its original form, was illegal, which led to a delay in its implementation and a redrafting of the agreement between the two countries. After Keir Starmer won the 2024 elections, the new government announced the complete cancellation of the Rwanda project and the cessation of work on it, considering it costly and ineffective. This came after official British reports revealed that London had paid hundreds of millions of pounds sterling to Rwanda as part of the agreement, while no asylum seeker had been forcibly deported under the plan, and the matter was limited to a very small number of those who moved voluntarily.