THE HAGUE — Rwanda launched arbitration proceedings against the United Kingdom in January 2026 over the refugee resettlement deal. Rwanda told a panel of international arbitrators at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that Britain still owes Rwanda 100 million pounds under the refugee resettlement deal.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government struck the refugee resettlement deal with Rwanda in 2022. Under the 2022 deal, migrants who arrive in the United Kingdom as stowaways or in boats would be sent to Rwanda. Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the refugee resettlement deal on his first full day in office in 2024.

"The United Kingdom did not do Rwanda the courtesy of informing it in advance. Instead, Rwanda was left to read about these developments in the media," said Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, Justice Minister and Attorney General of Rwanda.

The 2022 deal included arrangements for payments to Rwanda to help cover costs of hosting incoming migrants. Rwanda established an asylum appeals chamber, created ministerial and administrative structures and prepared reception facilities for incoming refugees under the deal.

The United Kingdom government is asking the arbitration court to dismiss Rwanda's claims for payment under the deal. The United Kingdom argues that it and Rwanda agreed in November 2024 that Rwanda would forgo payments under the deal. Rwanda denies that it agreed in November 2024 to forgo payments under the deal.

"A lot of the arbitration is going to turn around on the proof of that agreement," said Joelle Grogan, visiting senior research fellow at UCD Sutherland School of Law in Dublin.

"The most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen," said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Cooper estimated that the plan cost 700 million pounds in public funds, including payments to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off and paying more than a thousand civil servants who worked on the scheme.

Rwanda alleges that the United Kingdom violated part of the deal in which London had agreed to resettle vulnerable refugees from Rwanda. Hearings were held at the arbitration court, and the court is likely to take months or more to reach a decision.