Finland Constructs an Invisible Wall

Device manufacturers assert that with the aid of drones, probes, and other devices, continuous border monitoring is achievable.

Imagine for some reason you want to cross the border from Russia to Finland without a permit. This might seem easy. The border cuts through sparsely populated forest areas as a narrow rail. There are no high fences, surveillance cameras or visible border guards. You just need to walk over.

But soon a border guard approaches you to inquire why you’ve crossed the border without authorization. Today’s surveillance relies more on wireless devices than border fences. The much-discussed fences being erected now could give a misleading impression.

“The fence structure is symbolic. It sends a message that Finland operates in a certain way,” says assistant professor Anitta Kynsilehto from the Peace and Conflict Research Center of the University of Tampere, Tapri. She studies the movement of people around the Mediterranean Sea.

Future border control will focus more on wireless and digital monitoring rather than fences. The Border Guard already employs both stationary and portable surveillance technology at the eastern border, according to the head of the Border Guard’s communications unit, Commander Kimmo Ahvonen.

However, the authorities do not disclose in detail what kind of surveillance technology is being used. Nearly everyone carries mobile phones and other devices that emit radio waves nowadays. You get a hint of the type of technology coming to the border from the government’s recent proposal to amend the Border Patrol Act. The premise is that almost everyone nowadays carries mobile phones and other devices that emit radio waves.

These devices, commonly used by citizens, are crucial for maintaining border security, according to the government’s proposal. Outdoor users employ various applications as navigational aids, such as map browsers. Few people venture into the forest without a radio device anymore.

In practice, all wireless devices use radio waves, including surveillance cameras, dog radars, and drone control devices. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths varying from millimeters to tens of thousands of kilometers and frequencies ranging from 30 hertz to 3,000 gigahertz.

The border guard uses radar to detect the waves emitted by different devices, which reveal the traveler’s location, direction, and speed. Information about the messages’ content is also obtained by spying on radio signals, a tactic armies traditionally use to spy on each other.

What if someone crosses the border without a cell phone or other radio wave-emitting devices? The drone can silently observe the border line from the air. Its various cameras can spot the crosser both day and night.

The authorities keep the details of the detection technology a secret, but device manufacturers are eager to showcase the technology. Chinese company Joe advertises drones that employ cameras and thermal cameras to identify people moving in the terrain, even in the dark. Facial recognition can also reveal the identity of the motorist if they have ended up in the registers, for example, due to previous attempts to cross.

Fences, which are increasingly being built in other parts of the world, are becoming smarter. British company OptaSense supplies optical cables for border control. According to the company, a cable hidden in the fence can detect walkers three meters away from the fence. The cable’s sensors measure pressure, temperature, and sound. It can detect digging with a shovel from a meter away.

Despite the modern combination of border barriers appearing like an impenetrable jungle, it may not be able to stem the flow of refugees. “No can do. Development does not reduce the need to move,” says Kynsilehto.

Hans Rosling, a Swedish doctor who worked in poor countries, reminded us that the world, including Africa and the Middle East, has developed more than northerners think. For every detection method and countermeasure, someone develops a counter-technology. The extremist organization in the Gaza Strip, Hamas, has surprised Israel’s high-tech border control with rudimentary methods, such as jamming radio traffic with a device that can be purchased for less than a thousand euros, and destroying externally visible cameras and other surveillance devices by shooting and exploding.

Direct violence at the border only partially restrains the refugees. Indian border guards have killed hundreds of border crossers on the Bangladesh border. Still, people continue to cross the border. Ultimately, if the incentive is strong enough, a person can break through a stone wall. Some entrepreneurs manage to overcome even the toughest obstacles and even cross the sea.

The Mediterranean may be more significant for Finland than the eastern border. “Satellites and drones have been monitoring the Mediterranean Sea for twenty years. Still, boat companies continue to come over every week,” says Kynsilehto.

Despite the fact that over 50,000 entrepreneurs have drowned in our time, immigrants continue to come. Over a million immigrants are illegally residing in the European Union. There are ten million in the US. Attempts by rich countries to close legal routes have also led to the creation of a thriving crime industry. Human smuggling is a business worth billions of euros.

There are always officials who can be bribed and blackmailed, and companies for which newcomers qualify as cheap and unauthorized labor, as the European Commission website reports. Cracks are also being made in the walls by actors on the opposite side, i.e., human rights, civil liberties, and defenders of the Geneva Refugee Convention. They help refugees.

In the end, market pressure affects. When goods and capital move across borders, it is difficult to indefinitely lock people into pens. The recent experience with the Ukrainian refugees showed that the movement of even relatively large groups of people in a short time is also legally possible.

According to Kynsilehto, the European Union countries managed the flow of refugees from Ukraine “incredibly well”. The temporary protection directive has been applied in the situation.