Britain not liable for £100 million Rwanda payment
A court of arbitration has rejected a claim for more than Stg £100 million made by Rwanda against Britain arising from a deal to send asylum-seekers to the African country.
The judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague unanimously rejected Rwanda’s claims that Britain had breached the agreement.
They also rejected Rwanda’s claims that Britain should make payments related to the second and third years of the deal and ordered both sides to bear an equal share of the costs of the arbitration.
There was a dissenting opinion from one judge, who found that exchanges between the countries in 2024 meant that Rwanda should have received £50 million for the second year of the deal.
‘Dead and buried’
The agreement was reached by the Conservative government led by Boris Johnson, but was opposed by Labour, with prime minister Keir Starmer declaring it “dead and buried” when he came to power in 2024.
Britain’s Supreme Court declared the agreement unlawful in November 2023, finding that there had not been a proper assessment of whether Rwanda was safe.
The court said that there were "substantial grounds" to believe that people deported to Rwanda could then be sent back to their country of origin, where they would face “a real risk” of ill-treatment.