International law and access to asylum at Finland’s eastern border

Attempts by states to control and deter unwanted asylum seekers are a common feature of state responses to forced migration. There is nothing particularly new or novel about the situation currently facing Finland –unwanted forced migrants have been repelled by unwilling potential hosts for as long as documented migration has occurred. (FitzGerald 2019) In recent decades this repulsion has become increasingly targeted, calculated, systematised, and cruel. The Finnish response predictably follows this pattern.