On June 13, the European Court of Human Rights granted an urgent interim measure [3] that has halted deportations from the UK to Rwanda under the recently-agreed Memorandum of Understanding [4] (MoU) for three weeks. The case before the Court involved an Iraqi national who claimed asylum in the UK when he arrived on May 17. The UK provided him with notice that his application was inadmissible and that he would be removed to Rwanda on June 14. The High Court of England and Wales denied his request for interim relief to stop his removal to Rwanda, reasoning that if the Court later allowed the applicant's judicial review claim, he could be returned to the UK under the MoU. However, the Court did indicate that the issue of whether Rwanda is a safe third country for purposes of removals there would need to be addressed by the Court during the judicial review process. The ECtHR decided to issue the UK with a Rule 39 order not to remove the applicant to Rwanda until three weeks from the delivery of the final UK decision on judicial review. In coming to this decision, the Court gave great weight to concerns expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees "that asylum-seekers transferred from the United Kingdom to Rwanda will not have access to fair and efficient procedures for the determination of refugee status." The Court concluded that it was necessary to grant the measure requested "[i]n light of the . . . risk of treatment contrary to the applicant’s Convention rights as well as the fact that Rwanda is outside the Convention legal space (and is therefore not bound by the European Convention on Human Rights) and the absence of any legally enforceable mechanism for the applicant’s return to the United Kingdom in the event of a successful merits challenge before the domestic courts."