UK wins Rwanda asylum deal compensation case
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Britain was not liable to make the payments Rwanda had sought after the scheme was cancelled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer shortly after Labour took office.
An international tribunal has brought an end to Rwanda’s attempt to recover more than £100m from the UK over the abandoned asylum transfer agreement.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that Britain was not liable to make the payments Rwanda had sought after the scheme was cancelled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer shortly after Labour took office.
The case turned on whether the UK had breached the financial and legal terms of the migration partnership signed under the previous Conservative government.
UK lawyers argued that once Labour won the 2024 election on a pledge to scrap the Rwanda plan, it was reasonable and predictable that the policy would be brought to an end.
They also maintained that the cancellation did not trigger any further obligation to pay Rwanda.
The tribunal accepted the UK’s position and rejected Rwanda’s request for compensation and other remedies.
Rwanda said it respected the ruling and regarded the dispute as closed, although it noted that a dissenting opinion showed the legal questions were not straightforward.
Kigali had argued that it incurred major costs preparing to host asylum seekers and that London walked away from the arrangement without properly informing Rwandan authorities in advance.
The agreement was originally announced in 2022 under Boris Johnson and later promoted by Rishi Sunak as a central deterrent against small boat crossings.
It would have allowed the UK to send some asylum seekers who arrived illegally to Rwanda, where their claims would be processed.
Successful applicants would have remained in Rwanda rather than returning to Britain.
But the policy was repeatedly delayed by legal challenges.
The first scheduled flight in 2022 was stopped shortly before departure after intervention by the European Court of Human Rights.
No compulsory removals took place under the plan before Labour cancelled it.
A separate voluntary scheme later offered rejected asylum seekers up to £3,000 to relocate to Rwanda, but only four people were removed under that arrangement.
After entering Downing Street, Mr Starmer declared the Rwanda scheme “dead and buried”.
Following the tribunal’s ruling, the UK government said it had robustly defended its position and would now focus on wider border reforms, including speeding up removals of people with no right to remain.
