Rwanda bills UK £50m over cancelled migrant deportation scheme

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Rwanda is demanding that the UK pay £50 million for its cancelled deportation scheme in an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Rwandans have sent a formal notification invoicing the Government for the £50 million they originally agreed to forgo when Labour announced it was scrapping the scheme within days of winning the election.

However, the Rwandan government says the UK has still failed to formally terminate the agreement despite scrapping the scheme – allowing them to claim the payment even though not a single migrant has been forcibly deported to the eastern African state.

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, suspended aid to Rwanda last week and threatened further sanctions over military action by Rwanda-backed group M23 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In a statement, Yolande Makolo, the spokesman for the Rwandan government, said the UK had breached the “trust and good faith” between the two countries by its “unjustified punitive measures to coerce Rwanda into compromising our national security”.

She also accused Lord Collins, the UK minister for Africa, of comments that “misled the public, fuelled the DRC propaganda machine and undermined the ongoing African-led peace process”.

“We are therefore now following up on these funds, to which the UK is legally bound,” she said.

It follows a suggestion by Lord Collins that Rwanda had links with the Ugandan Islamic State-linked group ADF, which recently killed 70 people in a church in eastern DRC. His comments were subsequently retracted.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has consistently criticised the Rwanda scheme as a waste of money that cost the taxpayers some £700 million when just four migrants were voluntarily sent to the east African state.

The £700 million included £290 million of payments to Rwanda, the cost of chartering flights that never took off, detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them, as well as paying for more than 1,000 civil servants to work on the scheme.

Under the agreement, the UK had paid £220 million as of February 2024, with three further payments, each of £50 million, to be made in April 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The agreement contained a break clause that the UK could activate at any point without having to make any further payments. The termination would take effect three months after the point of notification, according to the National Audit Office (NAO) which had access to the financial documentation.

It is believed the £50 million now requested by the Rwandans relates to the payment for April 2025. Ms Makolo said: “Rwanda has sent a formal notification to the UK government that we are invoicing for an amount of 50 million pounds from the Migration and Economic Development Program.

“The UK had asked Rwanda to quietly forgo the payment when they could not transfer any more migrants to Rwanda as their formal notification for termination was forthcoming. This request was based on the trust and good faith existing between our two nations. However, the UK has failed to formally terminate the Treaty as agreed.”
Last week Mr Lammy’s department issued a statement demanding a ceasefire in the DRC, saying it was “deeply concerned” by the situation in the country and that there could be no military solution to the conflict.

Mr Lammy indicated there would be a “strong response from the international community” in response to the escalating crisis in DRC and announced a series of sanctions the UK would take until “significant progress” was made.

It included pausing direct bilateral financial to Rwanda, potential new sanction designations, the suspension of future defence training, reviewing export licences for the Rwanda defence force, ceasing attendance at Rwanda-hosted events and limiting trade promotions in the east African state.

The Home Office and Foreign Office have been contacted for comment.

So the Rwandan government is not happy with the Foreign Office’s intervention so is now trying to create some mischief?

I’m sure Rishi Sunak and his family can take care of that bill resulting from his incompetence.

We’ll just send pritti patel and braverman over to wash dishes till the debt is paid.

edit: And cleverly.

I recently found out about how terribly cruel and evil Rwanda is to its neighbours and it’s sickening to know the Tories were in bed with them.

Should be taken out of the Conservative coffers. No ifs-no-buts it was their mistake.

Sop the UK paid £220 million to Rwanda as of Febuary 2024 and only 4 migrants have been sent before it being scrapped?

Is this what corruption looks like?

Send Suella Braverman over as an indentured servant – she can work off the debt

Forward the bill to ‘The Eurosceptics group, C/O Tory Party HQ, London’

“No”

Haven’t you got a military incursion in Congo to be handling?

In all fairness to Rwanda, they built the facilities, paid the staff etc.

No reason they should be left holding the bag because our government ordered something stupid. If you put your toddler in charge of ordering dinner and 40 ice cream sundaes turn up at your door, you don’t get to renege on payment because you’ve decided it was a bad idea after all.

The UKs version of building a wall next to Mexico. Honestly pathetic waste of money by the conservative government.

Ask the stupid fuckers who came up with the stupid idea to foot the bill.