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Rwanda is taking legal action against the British government for its refusal to disburse payments under a controversial agreement to receive deported migrants, an arrangement Westminster abandoned two years ago, a Rwandan official said on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the deal, brokered by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022, when he took office in July 2024, declaring it “dead and buried.”
London had already paid Kigali £240 million (€276 million) before the agreement was abandoned, with a further £50 million (€57 million) due in April.
“Rwanda regrets that it has been necessary to pursue these claims in arbitration but faced with the United Kingdom’s intransigence on these issues, it has been left with no other choice,” Michael Butera, Chief Technical Advisor to the Minister of Justice, told the AFP news agency.
Butera added that Kigali had sought diplomatic engagement before resorting to legal action.
A spokesperson for Starmer said: “We will robustly defend our position to protect British taxpayers.”
The resettlement agreement faced a string of legal challenges, culminating in a November 2023 ruling by the UK Supreme Court that it was illegal under international law.
None of the scheduled flights taking asylum seekers to Rwanda left the UK and only four people ever went to the African country for resettlement, all voluntarily.
Immigration is an increasingly central political issue since Britain left the European Union in 2020, largely on a promise to “take back control” of the country’s borders.
Rwanda, home to 13 million people in Africa’s Great Lakes region, claims to be one of the most stable countries on the continent and has drawn praise for its modern infrastructure.
But rights groups accuse veteran President Paul Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech.
Additional sources • AFP