On Tuesday, UK Home Secretary James Cleverly traveled to Rwanda to sign a new treaty on cooperation against irregular migration with Rwanda, after the older draft was scrapped by the UK Supreme Court as "unlawful." He insisted the African nation had not requested and was not given any additional funds for the deal.
"Ministers have agreed that I can disclose now the payments so far in the 2023-24 financial year. There has been one payment of £100m, paid in April this year as part of the Economic Transformation and Integration Fund [ETIF] mentioned above ... This was entirely separate to the Treaty - The Government of Rwanda did not ask for any payment in order for a Treaty to be signed, nor was any offered," Rycroft said in a letter to lawmakers on Thursday.
The official further stated that London had paid Kigali 140 million pounds in 2022; however, no migrants were transported to Rwanda that year.
Another 50 million pounds will be wired in the 2024-25 financial year "as part of the ETIF as agreed with the Government of Rwanda when the Migration and Economic Development Partnership was signed," the letter read.
The UK government treated immigration as one of its priorities since leaving the European Union in 2020. In April 2022, London and Kigali signed an agreement under which some of the undocumented migrants who arrived in the UK by sea were supposed to be sent to Rwanda for the processing of their cases and potentially resettlement. The first flight under the scheme was canceled due to interference of the European Court of Human Rights in 2022.
In November of this year, the UK Supreme Court declared the government's initial scheme unlawful, saying it could not guarantee the safety of asylum seekers after their deportation to Rwanda. The government responded by signing the new deal with Rwanda, which addressed the court's concern about the African country's safety for asylum seekers.