Rwanda’s government has announced that it will take action due to the failed Migration deals with Great Britain to the international arbitration court in The Hague. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is responsible for hearing disputes between states.
The Rwandan government insists that London is obliged to pay 100 million pounds under the agreement, even though the deal was never fully implemented, according to a statement from Rwanda on Tuesday.
The so-called Partnership for Migration and Economic Development between the two governments was signed in 2022 when Boris Johnson was still Prime Minister in Great Britain. The deal originally stipulated that several hundred refugees who were not granted asylum in Great Britain but could not be deported to their home countries were to be flown to Rwanda. There they should be given the opportunity to take up training or work and either settle there or apply for so-called resettlement programs in Canada or the USA.
But in the end only four refugees actually arrived after they volunteered to do so. The reason: Lawyers and human rights activists had filed a lawsuit in London against this deal. The first plane with around 130 migrants was supposed to have taken off from London in June 2022, but the judges stopped the action shortly beforehand.
The Rwanda program wasted £700 million of taxpayers’ money to bring back just four volunteers
Keir Starmer, Brit. prime minister
The Labor government rejected the plan
The new British Labor government Keir Starmer ultimately terminated the pact immediately after she took office in 2024, calling it a “waste of taxpayers’ money.” A spokesman for Starmer said again: “The Rwanda program was a complete disaster. It wasted £700 million of taxpayers’ money to bring back just four volunteers.”
The agreement contained an exit clause that stated that “either Party may terminate this Agreement upon written notice to the other Party.” However, another clause stipulated that part of the money still had to be paid even if the deal was canceled. After all, Rwanda’s government had already prepared a hostel in the capital Kigali to accommodate the refugees.
At the time of signing, London had committed itself to a total of 700 million pounds, of which 290 million pounds were earmarked as compensation for expenses directly to Rwanda. In December 2024, the British Home Office announced that further payments of 100 million pounds would have been due under the contract, including 50 million pounds in the 2025/26 financial year and another 50 million for 2026/27.
UK stops development aid
But then the British government announced at the beginning of 2025 that it would end development cooperation with Rwanda after the Congolese rebels of the M23 (March 23 Movement) took the eastern Congolese city of Goma with Rwandan help in January. In other words: The payment of the 100 million pounds from the migration deal was also suspended for this reason.
In its statement, Rwanda’s government justified the move by saying Prime Minister Starmer had declared the deal “dead and buried” to the media, “without prior notification to Rwanda, which is contrary to the spirit of the partnership,” according to Kigali’s statement.
“We will firmly defend our position to protect British taxpayers and are now focused on effective measures to combat illegal migration, not costly games,” said a spokesman for Prime Minister Starmer.