Britain is being sued for millions of pounds by Rwanda after Labour scrapped the asylum deal between the two countries.
The British taxpayer could be set to fork out more than £50million after the East African nation launched legal action.
The Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration is handling the dispute.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made scrapping the Rwanda bill one of his first acts upon taking office.
His hasty decision was condemned by the outgoing Tories, who claimed the arrangement would have acted as a deterrent for migrants seeking to reach Britain via small boat.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Daily Mail that Rwanda’s legal claim was “yet another catastrophic legal consequence of Labour’s decision to scrap the Rwanda scheme”.
Migrants arriving from France after making the perilous trip across the Channel would have been sent to Kigali, where they would have been housed and offered the chance to claim asylum.
Labour attacked the deal as a “gimmick” and scrapped it almost immediately, but the decision was followed by a massive spike in the number of migrants crossing from northern France.
Keir Starmer’s decision to end the Rwanda agreement might come back to bite
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GETTY / PA
Flights to Rwanda were scrapped when Sir Keir Starmer was elected | PA
The UK taxpayer has already had to shell out £715million for the abandoned scheme, according to Home Office figures.
The deal was originally signed by former Home Secretary Priti Patel in 2022, when Boris Johnson was still Prime Minister.
A number of staged payments were to be made to Rwanda by the UK under the terms of the agreement.
Under the deal, £290million was paid directly to the Rwandan government.
Former PM Rishi Sunak tried and failed to put the Rwanda plan into force
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GETTYA further £50million was due in April last year, a figure which is thought to be at the centre of the legal wrangling.
It has now been revealed that Rwanda lodged a “notice of arbitration” with the court in November.
The country’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Dr Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, has been put forward as the representative of the claimants in the legal papers.
Lord Verdirame KC, a crossbench peer, has been instructed by Rwanda.
The papers also named Dan Hobbs, the Home Office director for migration and borders, as a case representative.
The Home Office has instructed Ben Juratowitch of London-based Essex Court Chambers.
A Government spokesperson told GB News: “The previous government’s Rwanda policy wasted vast sums of taxpayer time and money.
“We will robustly fight this in the courts to protect British taxpayers.”
