UK pays $470m to Rwanda for asylum deal

Rwanda will receive at least $470million from the UK as part of the plan to have asylum seekers in the UK relocate there.

The UK government’s spending watchdog National Audit Office (NAO) on Friday revealed up to $190, 000 will also be paid for each person sent to the east African country over a five-year period.

The NAO report comes after MPs have been calling for greater transparency over the cost of the scheme.

But the amounts have been criticised by Labour which called it a “national scandal”.

In January, Rwandan President Paul Kagame suggested U.K. efforts to introduce an asylum deal with his country are taking too long to implement after criticism of the plan have brought about protests, lawsuits and rulings that have halted it.

A Supreme Court ruling in November described the plan as ‘illegal’.

Britain’s Home Secretary James Cleverly and Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta signed a new treaty in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, in December.

Under the five-year deal, the UK would be able to send individuals who arrive in the country illegally to Rwanda to claim asylum there.

Britain and Rwanda first signed the deal in April 2022.

Africanews/Hauwa M.