Rwanda-UK migration dispute set for hearing this week
The dispute between Rwanda and the United Kingdom (UK) over an unimplemented asylum agreement will be heard this week on Wednesday, March 18, at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, Netherlands.
The arbitration proceedings were initiated by Rwanda in January over the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP), a bilateral treaty signed in 2024.
The agreement was intended to create arrangements under which the UK would resettle some of the most vulnerable refugees hosted in Rwanda.
The treaty set a framework for the arrangement, but the details were never finalised. When a new UK government took office last year, it announced that the partnership would no longer continue.
In filing the arbitration, Rwanda accused the UK of failing to honour commitments under the agreement. According to the Ministry of Justice, Rwanda and the UK agreed, through a binding exchange of diplomatic notes in June 2024, on financial arrangements to support refugee hosting and economic integration.
Under the arrangement, two payments of £50 million each were due in April 2025 and April 2026, but the ministry says the payments have not been made.
Rwanda also says that when a new UK government took office last year, it announced that the partnership would no longer continue, but these announcements were made prior to the formal invocation of the treaty’s termination provisions.
“Under international law, termination operates prospectively and does not affect obligations that had already accrued while the treaty remained in force,” read an earlier statement by Michael Butera, Chief Technical Advisor to the Minister of Justice.
