The Hague (AFP) – Britain and Rwanda cross swords at an international court from Wednesday, with Kigali seeking more than £100 million it says London still owes from a scrapped deal to deport migrants.
Officials from the two countries will lay out their case at a three-day hearing before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, set up in 1899 to settle contractual disputes between nations.
A three-judge panel will weigh the clash over the controversial scheme that quickly became a political and legal hot potato.
The two nations are already at loggerheads after Britain slashed aid to Rwanda, accusing it of supporting M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In 2022, former prime minister Boris Johnson sealed a deal with Kigali to send migrants arriving in Britain via “dangerous or illegal journeys” in small boats or lorries to Rwanda.
But the scheme hit legal and political obstacles from the start, with the UK Supreme Court eventually slapping it down as illegal.
When Keir Starmer became prime minister in July 2024, he declared the plan “dead and buried” on his first full day in office, dismissing it as a “gimmick.”
Then interior minister Yvette Cooper called it “the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I have ever seen.”
During the two years before the scheme was scrapped, only four people actually went to Rwanda, according to the current UK government, all voluntarily.
According to the UK government website, about £290 million has already been paid to Rwanda, but Kigali argued in its pre-hearing submissions to the PCA that two annual payments of £50m were still outstanding.
“The UK’s termination (of the deal) does not change the UK’s obligation to pay any amount that was already due and payable,” Rwanda said in its 37-page case.
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