The UK had paid £270 million to Rwanda as part of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership, but not a single migrant has been forcibly deported to the East African country. Only four failed asylum seekers have voluntarily flown to Rwanda after being offered £3,000 to do so.
According to the agreement’s break clause, the UK can withdraw from two scheduled payments of £50 million in 2025 and 2026 without incurring penalties. However, it is likely that the UK government will still be responsible for funding the asylum seekers already sent to Rwanda, numbering four individuals.
Dr. Uwicyeza Picard expressed concern at the criticism that Rwanda had faced as a result of entering into the deal with the UK. “It was because of this misconception that it was a Rwanda deal. Rwanda is not a deal, it is a country full of people whose policies are informed by the country’s recent history,” she said.
The ending of the agreement will be complicated by a group of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers who were transferred to Rwanda from the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The four, who landed in Diego Garcia in October 2021, hoping to sail to Canada to claim asylum, are Britain’s responsibility.
An audit of the costs and liabilities of the Rwanda scheme has been ordered by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, which she hopes to publish before the summer recess at the end of July. Labour says that scrapping the Rwanda scheme will free up £75 million in the first year of a Labour government to set up a new Border Security Command with Border Force, MI5, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to crack down on people smuggling gangs.
More than 90,000 migrants who were earmarked by Rishi Sunak’s government for deportation to Rwanda will be transferred to the asylum system, entitling them to apply for leave to remain in the UK. The Government also faces a multi-million-pound compensation bill by more than 200 migrants who claim they were wrongly detained for flights to Rwanda this summer when there was no “realistic” prospect of their removal within a reasonable timescale
