“After removal from the fund, no mistake is recognized…”. Rwanda clarified on Tuesday that the controversial agreement with the United Kingdom to deport asylum seekers, which the new British government scrapped, does not provide for the return of resources which London has already given her.

“The agreement we signed did not state that we would have to return any money,” explained the deputy government spokesman, Alain Mukuralinda, speaking on Rwandan state television.

On Saturday, two days after his party’s landslide victory in the general election, new Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he was abandoning a plan to deport asylum seekers and irregular migrants to Rwanda. The Labor leader said the plan drawn up by the previous Conservative government was “dead”.

However, London has already given £240m to Kigali, under this plan, from the day it was announced by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in April 2022. The UK Supreme Court ruled last November that the bill was not in line with international law. But in April the House of Commons approved it, after an endless confrontation with the House of Lords, which appeared wary of the plan. The UN and many Christian Churches had appealed to Britain not to implement it.

“It must be made clear, the return of the money was never part of the deal,” insisted Mukuralida, recalling that it was Britain that approached Rwanda, proposing cooperation. “The agreement was reviewed by the courts and even modified after the court rulings. It was submitted to Parliament and eventually became a treaty between the two countries. The treaties provide for exit clauses”explained.