The third-country route: what it cost, and what it delivered
The Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda ran from April 2022 until it was ended in July 2024. This is the department's own final account of it.
£715 million spent to June 2024. Four volunteers relocated, and no asylum seekers.
The department's own words
“During more than 2 years in which the policy and partnership operated, only four volunteers and no asylum seekers were sent to Rwanda.”
That sentence is the Home Office's, published in its own breakdown of what the partnership cost. Nothing on this page argues about whether the policy would have worked had it run longer — that is unknowable, and it is not what this site does. What is knowable is what was spent and what was delivered, and both are published.
Where the money went
The department's published breakdown, as printed. Figures to the nearest £5 million, as published. The final column covers 2024-25 only to June 2024.
| Category | 2022 to 2023 | 2023 to 2024 | 2024 to 2025 (to June 2024) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payments to Rwanda | £140m | £100m | £50m | £290m |
| Flights, escorting, airfield and impacted police force | £0m | £30m | £20m | £50m |
| Fixed detention and reception centre investment | £0m | £85m | £10m | £95m |
| Other fixed costs | £0m | £235m | £45m | £280m |
| Total | £140m | £450m | £125m | £715m |
The build checks this table reconciles in both directions — each row against its own total, each column against the published column total, and both against the published grand total. It is a hand-transcribed table, which is exactly where a digit goes missing.
The figures behind it
“A total of £270 million has been paid into the ETIF. This breaks down as £120 million in April 2022, £100 million in April 2023 and £50 million in April 2024.”
Fixed payments, independent of the number of people relocated.
“In April 2022, a one-off advance payment of £20 million was made for advance operational costs. This brings the total spent with Rwanda to £290 million.”
The ETIF payments plus a one-off advance for operational costs.
“Over £220 million in scheduled future payments will not have to be paid due to the partnership ending. This is saved by not having to pay the scheduled payments of £50 million in April 2025, £50 million in April 2026 and £120 million after the first 300 individuals had been relocated.”
Money not spent, not money recovered. The department states separately that ETIF payments already made are not recoverable.
“These payments can potentially last for five years and total £150,874 per individual, with the total annual payment decreasing over the five-year period”
Processing and integration costs, paid in stages while the person remained in Rwanda. It was never paid at scale: four volunteers went.
What third-country processing means now
The partnership is closed, but the policy family it belonged to is not. The inadmissibility rules still allow the Home Office to decline to consider a claim from someone with a connection to a safe third country: in 2026 Q1, 1,330 people were identified for consideration under those rules. Being identified for consideration is not the same as being removed, and this site publishes no figure joining the two, because none is published.
Safe third country, defined → · What the asylum system costs now →
Record compiled
Cite this page
The third-country route: what it cost and what it delivered. Migration Watchdog, data as of 2026-08-23. https://migrationwatchdog.com/third-country Underlying figures: UK official statistics, re-published under OGL v3.0 — every figure links to its source on the page.
Sources for this page
- Breakdown of Home Office costs associated with the MEDP with Rwanda and the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Home Office) — Home Office · as published 2 December 2024 · retrieved 2026-08-23
- NAO, Investigation into the costs of the UK-Rwanda Partnership — National Audit Office · published 1 March 2024 · retrieved 2026-08-23
- Asylum summary tables, year ending March 2026 (Home Office, Immigration system statistics) — Home Office · 2026 Q1 · retrieved 2026-08-21