THE HAGUE — An international court in The Hague ruled on June 3, 2026, that the United Kingdom is not liable to pay Rwanda £100 million over the failed 2022 migrant deportation agreement. The Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected Rwanda’s claim that the UK breached the deal by scrapping the scheme in 2024 and refusing to make two £50 million payments.

Rwanda had sued the UK government for more than £100 million, asserting it was owed two annual payments of £50 million plus £6 million in compensation and interest. The court’s 76-page ruling, dated May 15, 2026, found that diplomatic exchanges after the policy’s termination constituted an agreement that the UK would not make the payments due in April 2025 and 2026. The tribunal unanimously rejected the claim for the second year and rejected the first by a majority vote.

UK government lawyers argued during a three-day hearing that it was “entirely logical” the plan would be abandoned after Labour won the 2024 general election and that “simple common sense” dictated no further payments were owed. They also stated: “Rwanda is not entitled to any of the forms of relief it seeks.” A UK government spokesperson said: “The UK robustly defended its position, and the tribunal has now ruled in favour of the UK on all grounds.”

Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, Rwanda’s minister of justice and attorney general, told the court Rwanda had incurred costs preparing for the partnership and that the UK “then sought to walk away from its legal obligations.” He added that the UK “did not do Rwanda a courtesy of informing it in advance” of the decision to end the deal, leaving Rwandan leaders “left to read about this development in the media.”

The deportation agreement, sealed in 2022 by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, aimed to send asylum seekers arriving in the UK via irregular routes to Rwanda for processing. The UK Supreme Court later ruled the scheme illegal. Only four people were sent to Rwanda before the policy was shelved—all voluntarily, according to the current UK government. Approximately £290 million had already been paid to Rwanda under the deal, and the Conservative government spent about £700 million on the policy before 2024.

Upon taking office in July 2024, Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared the plan “dead and buried” on his first full day, calling it a “gimmick.” The UK government stated it is now focused on “delivering vital reforms to restore order and control to our borders, including removing the incentives drawing illegal migrants to Britain and scaling up removals of those with no right to be here.” Rwanda did not issue an immediate response to the court’s ruling.