Rwanda migration deal: Kigali says it won’t have to reimburse UK for scrapped scheme

Rwanda has said it does not have to pay repayments to the UK after a multi-million pound migration deal between the two countries was scrapped.

Britain’s new Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer announced over the weekend that plans to forcibly return some asylum seekers to Rwanda have “died.”

The plan was drawn up by the previous Conservative government and has paid out 240 million pounds ($310 million) to Rwanda since the 2022 plan was announced.

“Let’s be clear: repayment of money was not part of the agreement,” a Rwandan government spokesman told state television the following day.

Alan Mukurarinda said the agreement “does not provide” for the funds to be returned and that the UK had reached out to Rwanda to request cooperation which had been “discussed extensively”.

In January, after the plan had been stalled for 21 months, Rwandan President Paul Kagame suggested he might return some of the funds if no asylum seekers were sent to the country.

However, the Rwandan government later clarified that it was “under no obligation” to repay the money to the UK.

In the Rwandan capital, Kigali, workers who were hired a few months ago to build homes for asylum seekers expressed concern about Starmer’s decision.

A Gahanga site worker told the BBC that cancelling the plan “could have a negative impact on our way of life”.

Workers on site are paid between £1.80 and £6 a day, a relatively good wage for construction workers in Rwanda.

Resident Mariya Nyirahabimana said the value of homes in her neighbourhood had increased significantly since construction began, but she feared “poverty may return” to Gahanga.

Since his party’s landslide victory in last week’s election, Starmer has branded the Rwanda plan an “expensive gimmick” and pledged to focus instead on setting up new border patrols to crack down on human trafficking rings.

Opposition to the bill has come from other quarters over the past two years: the UK Supreme Court has ruled the plans unlawful, human rights groups have condemned them as cruel and draconian, and opponents within the Conservative party have called for changes to better protect the plans from legal challenge.

The previous government claimed the scheme was aimed at stopping people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Illegal immigration is one of the major challenges facing the UK Government.

More than 13,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year.

This figure is higher than the figure for the same period last year, but is down for 2023 overall compared to 2022.

Denmark had been considering a similar agreement with Rwanda but put talks on hold in January last year.

The country said it wanted a more unified European approach to tackling illegal immigration.

Additional reporting by the BBC’s Ann Soy.