An international arbitration court has ruled that the United Kingdom does not owe Rwanda more than £100 million in outstanding payments linked to a now-defunct asylum partnership, handing London a complete legal victory after a three-day hearing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The dispute centred on an agreement first struck in 2022 under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under which asylum seekers who arrived in the UK via "dangerous or illegal journeys" — crossing the English Channel in small boats or hidden in lorries — would be relocated to Rwanda to have their claims processed there. The scheme was designed as a deterrent to Channel crossings from France, but faced legal challenges from the outset. The UK Supreme Court ultimately ruled it unlawful, and when Labour's Keir Starmer took office in July 2024, he declared the plan "dead and buried" on his first full day as prime minister. In November 2024, both governments formally agreed to cancel the financial elements of the partnership.

Rwanda subsequently reversed its acceptance of that cancellation and took the UK to arbitration, claiming two unpaid annual instalments of £50 million — one each for 2025 and 2026 — plus £6 million in compensation for the collapse of a linked resettlement programme. Kigali argued the UK had incurred "significant costs" in preparing for large-scale asylum processing and had walked away from its legal obligations without even notifying Rwanda in advance, leaving officials to learn of the scheme's cancellation through the media. Rwanda's justice minister said his government would accept a formal apology in lieu of compensation. The three arbitrators rejected Rwanda's claims in their entirety — by majority on the first £50 million instalment and unanimously on the second — finding that Rwanda had already agreed in writing to waive its financial demands, a commitment it could not unilaterally reverse.

Crucial context, cited by the arbitrators, is that Rwanda only withdrew its agreement after the UK suspended all development aid to Kigali in early 2025, accusing it of backing M23 rebel forces in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo — a separate and ongoing dispute between the two countries. In total, the UK government says the Rwanda scheme cost British taxpayers around £700 million, encompassing all related expenditure including domestic administrative costs. Only four people were ever sent to Rwanda under the arrangement, all voluntarily, while approximately £290 million in agreed development payments had already been transferred to Kigali before the scheme collapsed.

The ruling matters beyond its immediate financial implications. It closes a contentious legal chapter on one of the most polarising immigration policies in recent British political history, while also illustrating how bilateral agreements between governments can unravel when political circumstances change — and how financial settlements reached informally between states can later become contested when the broader relationship deteriorates. The UK government said it had "robustly defended its position" and welcomed the tribunal's decision on all grounds.