UK wins court case over collapsed Rwanda asylum deal

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - LONDON — Britain will not have to pay Rwanda tens of ‌millions of pounds over a canceled asylum agreement, an international court ruled on Monday.

The Hague-based the Permanent Court of Arbitration said it had rejected all financial claims made by Rwanda, which had argued Britain still needed to honor the terms of the deal that Prime Minister Keir Starmer ⁠canceled in 2024.

Shortly after he took office, Starmer scrapped the Conservative government's asylum plan, under which Rwanda would have been paid to take in migrants who had illegally arrived in Britain.

Lawyers representing Britain during the three-day hearing in the Netherlands had argued that it was "entirely logical" the plan would be scrapped when Labour came to power and "simple common sense" that no further payments would be due.

They also denied London breached parts of the deal.

"Rwanda is not entitled to any of the forms of relief it seeks," they told the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Rwanda was asking for at least £60 million ($80 million), the court documents showed.

Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, Rwanda's minister of justice and attorney general, previously told the court the country had incurred "significant costs" preparing for the partnership, but the Britain "then sought to walk away from its legal obligations".

He also said Britain "did not do Rwanda a courtesy of informing it in advance" that it was scrapping the deal, and leaders were "left to read about this development in the media".

Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak introduced the scheme as a deterrent to those looking to illegally cross the English Channel in small boats.

The plan had first been announced in 2022 by then-prime minister Boris Johnson. It was designed so that asylum seekers arriving in the UK "illegally" from a safe country, such as France, would be sent to Rwanda and have their claims processed there.

If successful, they could be granted refugee status and allowed to stay in Rwanda.

The first flight that had been scheduled to take off under the plan in 2022 was grounded minutes before take-off due to an intervention from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which triggered a series of legal challenges in London courts.

The scheme faced a number of legal battles before it was ultimately scrapped.

A voluntary removals program was subsequently announced in 2024, under which migrants whose claims were rejected were offered up to £3,000 to move to the east African country.

Only four people were voluntarily removed to Rwanda.

Dropping the scheme was one of Labour's manifesto pledges ahead of the 2024 general election, and when Starmer came into office he declared the plan "dead and buried".

Responding to the court's decision, a government spokesperson said the UK had "robustly" defended its position.

They said the government was "focused on delivering vital reforms to restore order and control to our borders, including removing the incentives drawing illegal migrants to Britain and scaling up removals of those with no right to be here".

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp welcomed the court's ruling, saying Britain "should not be in the position where such courts have jurisdiction over the decisions made by our sovereign parliament".

But he said Labour "should have never cancelled the Rwanda plan" and that the decision has led to record crossings and asylum claims.

Imran Hussain, the director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said on Monday the scheme caused "chaos" by pausing decisions and leaving people stuck in the system.

"The best way to get value for money is to build a fair and functioning asylum system that makes quick, accurate decisions about who can stay and who must return," Hussain added.

Relations between Britain and Rwanda soured last year when London paused some aid over the Rwandan role in the war in ⁠Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda has faced global pressure over accusations that it supports the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo.

Kigali denies backing M23 ⁠and has blamed Congolese and Burundian forces for fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands in the past year.