{"id":56979,"date":"2026-01-27T12:05:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rwanda-takes-uk-to-court-over-scrapped-asylum-deal\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:06:35","slug":"rwanda-takes-uk-to-court-over-scrapped-asylum-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rwanda-takes-uk-to-court-over-scrapped-asylum-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda takes UK to court over scrapped asylum deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rwandan government, represented by its Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Dr. Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, claims that the UK\u2019s decision violated the terms of a deal originally signed in 2022 by former Home Secretary Priti Patel, when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister. <\/p>\n

Under the agreement, the UK says it had already paid \u00a3290 million to Rwanda, with a further \u00a350 million due in April 2025, the amount at the center of the legal dispute as reported by GB News.<\/p>\n

The deal was intended to relocate undocumented migrants arriving in the UK via small boats to Kigali, where they would be housed and given the opportunity to claim asylum. <\/p>\n

However, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made scrapping the Rwanda scheme one of his first acts upon taking office in July 2024.<\/p>\n

Rwanda strongly opposed Starmer\u2019s decision, arguing it was made hastily and without proper consultation. <\/p>\n

Speaking to Daily Mail, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticized the suspension, describing Rwanda\u2019s legal claim as \u201cyet another catastrophic legal consequence of Labour\u2019s decision to scrap the Rwanda scheme\u201d <\/p>\n

The UK government defended the suspension, arguing that the previous policy wasted significant taxpayer money and resources. <\/p>\n

Figures from the Home Office indicate that as of September 2025, 36,273 migrants were still being accommodated in hotels at the taxpayer\u2019s expense, an increase of nearly 7,000 since Labour came to power.<\/p>\n

According to GB News, Rwanda has appointed Lord Verdirame KC of Essex Court Chambers to represent its case, while the UK government is represented by Ben Juratowitch. The legal papers also name Dan Hobbs, the Home Office director for migration and borders, as a case representative.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rwanda has launched legal action against the United Kingdom, demanding over \u00a350 million after the UK government suspended the Migration and Economic Development Partnership between the two countries. The dispute is being handled by the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000101156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000101156,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rwanda_uk-4adb5.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rwanda_uk-4adb5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rwanda_uk-4adb5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rwanda_uk-4adb5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rwanda_uk-4adb5.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/rwanda_uk-4adb5.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000101156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56979"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56979"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}