Denmark and Sweden tighten border controls

Unpublished
COPENHAGEN - Denmark has introduced temporary controls along its border with Germany, just hours after Sweden took similar measures to check the flow of refugees. Sweden began checking documents of travellers from Denmark on Monday for the first time in half a century, causing delays of trains and frustration among travellers. Those without valid ID documents are denied to board buses, trains and ferries bound for Sweden, but cars are exempt from checks. Denmark's prime minister said Sweden's move gave his country no option but to impose its own border controls. He appealed to the European Union to take "collective decisions" to better protect its external borders against the tide of migrants and refugees. "The Swedish ID checks can increase the risk of a large number of illegal immigrants to accumulate in and around Copenhagen," Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in Copenhagen, justifying the new controls on the German border. Last year about 163,000 refugees sought asylum in Sweden, the largest number for any EU country relative to its population. But with arrivals running at around 10,000 a week in November, mostly travelling through Denmark, the Swedish government has said it is time to tighten border controls and asylum rules. The ID controls appeared to have an immediate effect. Ewa-Gun Westford, Swedish police spokesperson, said that as of Monday afternoon, "very few" asylum-seeker had arrived by train across the Oresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden. At the height of the refugee crisis a few months ago, more than 1,000 asylum-seekers crossed the bridge daily. With increased border controls, people smuggling within the EU could increase. Falsification of IDs could also become big business.(FA)

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