Rwanda has announced that it has filed a legal complaint at The Hague against the United Kingdom over unmet payments from a cancelled migration treaty.
The Rwandan government filed a Notice of Arbitration in November 2025 to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, under Article 22 of the Treaty between the United Kingdom and Rwanda concerning the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP).
In a statement, Rwanda’s government said it had decided to pursue claims in arbitration after facing the UK’s “intransigence on these issues.”
The Rwandan government is making three claims in relation to the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which was signed in 2022 when Boris Johnson was prime minister.
The statement accuses the UK of breaching the deal by setting out the financial terms of the agreement publicly, failing to make payments totalling £100m, and “refusing to make arrangements to resettle vulnerable refugees from Rwanda.”
Specifically, Rwanda stated that the UK “breached an exchange of notes” by revealing the treaty’s financial arrangements publicly. It further pointed to a violation of Article 18 for not honouring financial arrangements, and of Article 19 by refusing to make arrangements to “resettle vulnerable refugees from Rwanda.”
The MEDP was established in April 2022, while Boris Johnson was the UK prime minister. The agreement stated that people attempting to claim asylum in the UK would be sent to Rwanda to seek asylum there.
The bill was motivated by political tensions over the vast majority of migrants arriving in small boats.
In return, £370 million ($511 million) would be sent to Rwanda for development funding, with an additional £120 million ($165 million) once 300 people were confirmed relocated, and a specified amount per relocated person thereafter.
It was upgraded to a formal, legally binding treaty in December 2023, with nearly half (£240m) of the payment completed.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in 2024 that the Rwanda plan was “dead and buried” and to be replaced by the Border Security Command, set to provide strategic leadership across different enforcement departments to “smash the criminal smuggling gangs making millions out of small boat crossings.”
Only four volunteers arrived in Rwanda when the deal was in force.
The deal included a break clause, which said “each party may terminate this agreement by giving notice to the other party in writing.”
The previous Conservative government spent some £700m on the Rwanda policy, which was intended to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats.
The £700m included £290m of payments to Rwanda.
In December 2024, the Home Office said a further £100m of payments would have been due under the treaty, £50m in each of the 2025-26 and 2026-27 financial years.
In addition, the Home Office had agreed to pay £120m upon the transfer of 300 people to Rwanda.
As part of the partnership, the UK had also agreed to resettle a small number of vulnerable refugees who were already being hosted in Rwanda and had not been sent there from Britain. In 2022, the Home Office said this was expected to amount to “tens” of cases, involving people who have complex needs, such as acute health problems.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The previous government’s Rwanda policy wasted vast sums of taxpayer time and money. We will robustly defend our position to protect British taxpayers.”
Tensions over migrants have increased in Europe in recent years, with France and the UK forming alliances to crack down on illegal Channel crossings.
The UK has been condemned for its stance on criminalising illegal migrants, such as the Illegal Migrants Act, as well as receiving criticism for inefficient use of taxpayers’ money when housing asylum seekers.
