Despite scrapped deal, UK, Rwanda agree to work together ‘to tackle illegal migration’, somehow

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (Paul Faith/AFP)

• Rwandan President Paul Kagame and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met on the sidelines of the Paris Olympics.
• Since Starmer came into office, about 500 illegal migrants have crossed into the UK in eight boats.
• Starmer said close cooperation with Kigali on migration issues should continue, despite cancelling the Rwanda-UK Migration and Economic Development Partnership Initiative.

A day after Rwandan President Paul Kagame met new UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the Paris Olympics, a woman attempting to cross the English Channel became the 23rd person known to have died doing so this year.

According to UK Home Office statistics, since Starmer’s government took over, eight small boats are known to have arrived in the UK, carrying about 500 migrants between them.

So when the two leaders met, they could hardly fail to discuss the deal Kigali said was a form of helping out the island state.

Starmer’s office said the two leaders “discussed their shared commitment to continue working together on solutions to tackle illegal migration”.

While it cancelled the Rwanda-UK Migration and Economic Development Partnership Initiative, which would effectively pay Rwanda to accept migrants flown in from the UK, the new UK government said it would still strengthen border security.

It has also promised to smash criminal smuggling gangs making fortunes out of arranging small boat crossings.

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It was unclear how Rwanda can help the UK on this, other than serving as a home for undocumented migrants, but Starmer said he believed there was a role for Rwanda.

“The president and the prime minister reflected on the strength of the relationship between Rwanda and the UK, and both agreed this spirit of close cooperation should continue,” his office said.

When Suella Braverman was home secretary under the leadership of Elizabeth Truss (who served as PM for just 59 days between September and October 2022) and later under Rishi Sunak, she was a strong proponent of the five-year Rwanda-UK deal.

She travelled to Rwanda on a fact-finding mission, after which she said it was a peaceful country suitable for settlement.

Writing a column in the UK Telegraph at the weekend, she said her Conservative Party lost the election because they failed to “cut immigration, despite saying we would“.

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