Asylum seekers have been deported from most EU countries, including Finland, via the Dublin agreement mechanism. This dictates that asylum seekers can only apply for refugee status in one EU country, and other countries are free to deport asylum seekers back to the country in which they first arrived in the EU.
Deportations using the Dublin procedure are now in doubt after the ECHR ruled in favour of an Afghan translator who sought asylum in Belgium after passing through Greece.
The court ruled that his human rights were violated because he was deported from Belgium back to Greece even though he was likely to be held in prison-like conditions.
The decision is a strong indictment of the Greek immigration system and the conditions in which migrants are held there. Britain, Iceland, Norway, Germany and Sweden had stopped deporting asylum seekers to Greece before Finland made the same decision.