The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands threw out a claim by the Rwandan government for payments it would have received in 2024 and 2025 if the Tory deportation agreement had not been scrapped
The UK will not have to pay Rwanda millions of pounds after tearing up the botched Tory deportation policy, a court has ruled.
The African nation had sued the government for £100million, arguing it should still receive payments it was due to receive in 2024 and 2025. The vast sum was agreed as part of a controversial deal pushed by the Conservatives under Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, which saw more than £700m handed over as part of a deal to send failed asylum seekers there.
But despite Mr Sunak’s government pushing through a string of legislation to get around legal concerns about the policy, not a single compulsory removal was carried out. Labour scrapped the project when it came to power.
On Monday morning the government dismissed the Tory project as a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Judges at The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands ruled against Rwanda after the UK said it was not entitled to any further payments. Britain argued it was “simple common sense” that no more money would be paid after the policy was abandoned.
The Rwanda scheme was a flagship project in the final years of the Tories. They claimed they could end small boat crossings by sending failed aslylum seekers to Africa. But just four volunteers were ultimately sent, and it was never clear how many people Rwanda could accommodate.
Following a Supreme Court ruling which declared the policy unlawful in 2023, Mr Sunak pushed the Safety of Rwanda Act, which declared it a safe country to send people to. In 2024 The Mirror revealed that even as the legislation was bring pushed through Parliament, the Foreign Office was drawing up a communications plan in case war broke out between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
During the case, lawyers representing Britain argued it was “entirely logical” the plan would be scrapped when Labour came into power after the 2024 general election. According to legal papers, Rwanda asked the court to find the UK in breach of the agreement and demanded it pay all outstanding sums, as well as compensation.
Lawyers for the UK denied it had breached parts of the deal. They said: “Rwanda is not entitled to any of the forms of relief it seeks.”
When he became PM, one of Keir Starmer’s first moves was to declare the plan “dead and buried”. Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, Rwanda’s minister of justice and attorney general, previously told the court the country incurred “significant costs” preparing for the partnership but the UK “then sought to walk away from its legal obligations”.
He also said the UK “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”
In a document setting out Rwanda’s claim, Mr Ugirashebuja asked the court to rule that the UK had breached the agreement and should pay about £100 million that it was due to receive in two instalments in 2024 and 2025, plus £6 million in compensation and interest.
Instead of compensation, he said Rwanda would accept a formal apology from the UK for failing to honour parts of the deal.
One of the arbitrators in the case, Professor Mohamed Abdel Wahab, said the UK should pay Rwanda £50 million for the second year of the scheme, but he was overruled by the majority.
A government spokesperson said: “The UK robustly defended its position, and the tribunal has now ruled in favour of the UK on all grounds. The previous government’s policy wasted time and £700 million of taxpayer money to send four volunteers to Rwanda.
“We are now 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.”