UK will not have to pay Rwanda £100m over failed asylum scheme, court rules

Rwanda had sued UK government over alleged breach of agreement, after scheme scrapped by Labour on first day in office

The UK will not have to pay the Rwandan government millions of pounds over a failed migrant deportation scheme set up by Boris Johnson’s administration, an international court has ruled.

The east African nation had sued the current UK government for more than £100m, claiming it was owed after a breach of an agreement.

But after a three-day hearing at The Hague’s permanent court of arbitration in the Netherlands , judges ruled that the UK was not liable for two years of outstanding costs from the scheme, which was shelved in 2024.

Johnson, then prime minister, sealed a deal in 2022 with Kigali to send to Rwanda all asylum seekers arriving on UK shores after “dangerous or illegal journeys” in small boats or lorries.

But the scheme hit legal and political obstacles from the start, with the UK supreme court eventually ruling it illegal. When Keir Starmer became British prime minister in July 2024, he declared the plan “dead and buried” on his first full day in office, dismissing it as a “gimmick”.

During the case, lawyers representing the UK argued it was “entirely logical” the plan would be scrapped when Labour came into power after the 2024 general election and “simple common sense” that no further payments would be due.

During the two years before the scheme was scrapped, only four people actually went to Rwanda, all voluntarily, according to the current UK government. About £290m has been paid to Rwanda, the UK government website says, but Kigali argued in its pre-hearing submissions to the court that two annual payments of £50m were still outstanding.