Rwanda Says It Doesn’t Have to Repay U.K. for Scrapped Migration Plan

Rwanda does not have to repay the hundreds of millions of pounds it received from Britain as part of a contentious policy aimed at sending migrants on a one-way flight to the Central African nation, two senior Rwandan government officials have said.

As part of the deal, Britain was set to give Rwanda as much as about half a billion pounds in development funding in exchange for taking in the migrants. Britain’s independent public spending watchdog said in early March that the country had already paid Rwanda £220 million, about $280 million, even though no asylum seekers had been deported to the African nation.

Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, scrapped the plan after taking over as the country’s leader last week. The initiative had been devised by Britain’s previous government under the Conservative Party in an effort to deter unauthorized migrants from crossing the English Channel to Britain in unsafe boats.

One of the Rwandan officials, Alain Mukuralinda, the government’s deputy spokesman, said on Wednesday that the agreement did not include a reimbursement clause.

“The British decided to request cooperation for a long time, resulting in an agreement between the two countries that became a treaty,” he said in a video posted on social media by the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency. “Now, if you come and ask for cooperation and then withdraw, that’s your decision.”

“Good luck,” he added.