Rwanda has launched legal action against the United Kingdom, claiming more than 100 million British pounds (116 million euros) is owed under a migrant resettlement deal that was abandoned shortly after Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office in 2024.

The case is being heard at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague in the Netherlands. The hearing, which opened on Wednesday (March 18), is expected to last several days, with the tribunal likely to take months to reach a decision. The court was set up in 1899 to resolve contractual disputes between countries.

Rwanda argues that the UK violated the terms of the 2022 migrant agreement, which was signed under the previous Conservative administration led by Rishi Sunak. The deal aimed to send migrants arriving in the UK via small boats or trucks to the east African country, where their asylum claims would be processed. The Rwandan government in Kigali, in exchange, would receive payments to cover the costs of resettlement, including creating reception centers, administrative structures, and an asylum appeals chamber.

"The United Kingdom did not do Rwanda a courtesy of informing it in advance. Instead, Rwanda was left to read about these developments in the media," Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, Rwanda’s minister of justice and attorney general, has told the court. He called the UK’s approach "inward-looking" and "tone deaf" to Rwanda’s obligations under the deal.

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'Rwanda is rightly aggrieved'

Rwanda is seeking the remaining sums it says are owed (two annual payments of 50 million pounds, and an additional six million pounds tied to a reciprocal commitment by the UK to resettle vulnerable Rwandan refugees escaping conflict in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

During Rwanda's pre-hearing submissions, the country said "it was wrong for the UK to walk away from its obligations."

"Simply because its internal political assessment of the agreement's convenience had changed…Rwanda is rightly aggrieved by the UK’s conduct and seeks an apology."

UK lawyers have argued that Rwanda’s case is legally weak, and critics claimed that the country’s real motivation is linked to London’s suspension of aid over Rwanda's alleged support for the M23 rebel group in the DRC.

"The timing of Rwanda's case against the UK is clearly deliberate, as the country attracts increasing criticism over its support for M23," said Phil Clark, Professor of International Politics at SOAS University of London. 

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Scheme is ultimately ruled unlawful

The UK maintains that an agreement in November 2024 was made on the understanding Rwanda would forgo the remaining payments, a claim the Rwandan government denies.

Only four migrants ultimately arrived in Rwanda under the policy, all voluntarily, despite the UK reportedly spending around 700 million pounds (about 810 million euros) on the scheme, including flights that never departed and staffing costs. The plan faced repeated legal challenges and was ultimately ruled unlawful by the UK Supreme Court. Yvette Cooper, who was Home Secretary at the time, called it the "most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen."

According to data published by the UK's Migration Observatory, based at Oxford University, the deal had cost the UK around 715 million pounds (around 827 million euros) by June 2024, just a month before it was scrapped. A further 220 million pounds (about 254 million euros) was due to be paid to Rwanda if the scheme had continued for the offshore processing, including the two payments of 50 million pounds due in 2025 and 2026, writes the International Bar Association (representative of barristers in the UK) in a summary of the case.

Lord Verdirame KC, one of the lawyers representing Rwanda, stressed the country’s disappointment: "Rwanda is not going to be drawn into an unnecessarily confrontational tone, but after all the time that was spent into this partnership... the United Kingdom's complete failure to comprehend Rwanda's perspective in this partnership is a matter of genuine regret."

The arbitration continues on Thursday (March 19), with both sides set to summarize their positions on Friday (March 20).

With AP, AFP, and dpa