Rwanda’s bid to extract more than £100m (€115m) from the UK over the collapsed migrant deportation scheme has been turned down by an international tribunal, dealing a fresh blow to a deal that was mired in controversy from the outset.
Judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague ruled that Britain was not responsible for two years of unpaid costs linked to the programme, which the UK abandoned in 2024.
The agreement was struck in 2022, when then prime minister Boris Johnson signed a pact with Kigali to relocate to Rwanda certain migrants who reached Britain through what the policy described as “dangerous or illegal journeys”—including crossings in small boats and arrivals hidden in lorries.
From its earliest days, however, the plan ran into fierce legal challenge and political resistance, culminating in a UK Supreme Court decision declaring it unlawful.
After taking office in July 2024, Prime Minister Keir Starmer moved quickly to shut it down, calling the initiative “dead and buried” on his first full day and deriding it as a “gimmick”.
Yvette Cooper, then the interior minister, condemned it in even sharper terms, describing it as “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I have ever seen”.
Hope Hostel in Kigali where migrants from UK were due to be to be deported to as part of the deal
Despite two years of preparations before the policy was scrapped, only four people travelled to Rwanda—and all did so voluntarily, according to the current UK government.
Official figures on the UK government website show that around £290m has already been transferred to Rwanda. Kigali nevertheless argued in submissions filed ahead of the PCA hearing that two annual instalments of £50m remained unpaid.
The PCA—an institution founded in 1899 to arbitrate contractual disputes between countries—dismissed Rwanda’s demand. A majority of judges rejected the £50m claim for one year, while the second £50m claim was rejected unanimously.
The ruling lands amid wider tension between the two governments, which are already clashing after the UK cut aid to Rwanda, accusing it of backing M23 rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.
