KIGALI/LONDON, — Rwanda has filed a case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, accusing the United Kingdom of breaching the financial and operational terms of the two countries’ 2022 “migration partnership” after Prime Minister Keir Starmer cancelled the scheme on taking office in 2024.
Under the agreement, Britain would pay Rwanda to accept asylum seekers and other migrants who arrived in the UK irregularly. The plan, launched under the previous Conservative administration, was designed as a deterrent to small-boat crossings and irregular migration. But it became mired in litigation and political controversy, and only four people were ultimately relocated voluntarily before the programme was abandoned.
In its arbitration notice, Rwanda says London later asked Kigali to forgo two scheduled payments of £50 million each—due in April 2025 and April 2026—on the basis that the underlying treaty would be formally terminated and revised financial terms would be negotiated. Rwanda says it was prepared to accept that approach only if termination was completed and new terms were agreed, but claims the discussions “never took place,” leaving the payments outstanding under the treaty.
Rwanda is also alleging the UK failed to honour commitments related to resettling vulnerable refugees with complex needs who were already being hosted in Rwanda, an issue Kigali says formed part of the partnership’s broader obligations.
The UK government has maintained that the Rwanda plan wasted taxpayer money and has said it will make no further payments. UK officials have previously cited the substantial sums already transferred to Rwanda under the scheme—reported by British authorities at £290 million—as part of the rationale for ending the arrangement.
The partnership faced major legal headwinds even before Starmer scrapped it. In 2023, the UK Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda was not a safe country for relocated asylum seekers, finding that transfers would risk breaches of domestic and international legal obligations.
The arbitration opens another front in a relationship that has cooled in recent months. Britain has also paused some aid to Rwanda amid wider regional tensions linked to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo—allegations Rwanda has denied
