Rwanda asking UK for $63 million over cancelled asylum deal

4/3/2025 19:32

Rwanda is asking Britain for a 50 million-pound ($63.62 million) payment over a cancelled asylum deal, a source close to the government in Kigali said on

Tuesday, after London paused some bilateral aid to the African country over the war in Congo.



On taking office last July, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the prior Conservative government's asylum plan, under which Rwanda would have been paid to take in migrants who had illegally arrived in Britain.



Incoming Interior minister Yvette Cooper said that month that the plan had already cost UK taxpayers 700 million pounds ($890 million).



A source close to the Rwandan government told Reuters that Kigali was asking Britain for 50 million pounds over the cancelled agreement.