Sweden, Denmark introduce border checks to stem migrant flow

A private security company at the station could be seen checking and photographing traveller IDs before allowing passengers on trains.

Sweden is the latest European country to impose the border checks, all but erasing the idea of a borderless Europe where a traveler could pass from one country into another without showing a passport.

Rail commuters heading to the country will have to change trains at the Copenhagen Airport and go through ID checkpoints.

“The solution won’t be found at national borders between country A and country B”.

Denmark received 18,505 asylum seekers, while Norway and Finland received 30,101 and 30,625, respectively.

“We are introducing temporary border controls, but in a balanced way”, Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen, adding that there would be no problem for “ordinary” Danes and Germans when crossing the border.

Sweden had expected to accept about 100, 000 newcomers in 2015, but by year’s end the figure was nearly twice that, and the country was struggling to provide shelter, education and other essential services for would-be asylum seekers.

The neighboring countries are connected by the longest rail and road bridge in Europe, and Denmark has been critical of Sweden’s decision to tighten the border.

The spat marks a low point in Danish-Swedish relations after Prime Minister Stefan Loefven past year joined Germany in welcoming hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing persecution in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Many have travelled to Sweden through Denmark, crossing the Oresund bridge which links Copenhagen with the Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund.

Officials at Danish train operator DSB confirmed a small number of people had been turned away, but would not specify if they were migrants or just commuters lacking proper ID.

Since it opened in 2000, the Oresund bridge between Sweden and Denmark has been a towering symbol of European integration and hassle-free travel across borders that people didn’t even notice were there.

For the first time in half a century, Sweden was demanding photo identification for all travellers from Denmark in a drastic move to stem an unprecedented influx of refugees. In the autumn, applications were running at 10,000 weekly.

However, Stockholm has made clear it wants to slash the flow to about 1,000 a week in 2016. The moves are supposedly temporary, but are likely to be extended if Europe’s migrant crisis continues in 2016.

She said the measures taken by Sweden meant Denmark was “faced with a serious risk to public order and internal security because a very large number of illegal immigrants may be stranded in the Copenhagen area”.

Over a million refugees have crossed in Europe over land and by sea over the past year as they flee conflict and oppression in the Middle East and Africa.