Germany warns Schengen in danger following new border controls

Denmark imposed temporary identity checks on its border with Germany on Monday following a similar move by Sweden, dealing a double blow to Europe’s fraying passport-free Schengen area amid a record influx of migrants. “We agreed to keep (the measures) to a minimum and return to normal as soon as possible”. Denmark began 2016 by imposing checks on its border this week, prompting the European Union to call Germany, Denmark and Sweden to a meeting in Brussels. I’m a true believer of the freedom of movement.

Just hours after Swedish rules went into effect requiring train passengers traveling from Denmark to show ID, the Danish government announced it had beefed up border controls with Germany as of noon Monday (1100 GMT, 6 a.m. EST).

Almost 163,000 people sought asylum in Sweden in 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe. “We will closely monitor the situation”.

“The goal of this meeting is to improve coordination between the concerned countries”, said Margaritis Schinas, adding that Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson, Danish Immigration Minister Inger Stoejberg and Ole Schroder, a German interior ministry official, will attend the meeting in Brussels.

Europe and the Mideast are facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

The two are the latest European countries to put in place tougher border security measures. About 13,000 applied for asylum in Denmark, while others traveled further north to Sweden, Norway and Finland, Loekke Rasmussen said.

Temporary border controls that were implemented at 12pm on Monday resulted in around 1,100 people being checked upon their entry into Denmark.

“Sweden cannot handle more than 150,000 to 200,000 asylum seekers per year, but Europe as a whole could do a lot more”. In September, Germany temporarily reinstated controls on its border with Austria, and just one day later, Austria restricted traffic coming in from Hungary.

“There will be a whole new market for smugglers and traffickers in Sweden and Scandinavia – because people, at the end of the day, want to be with their families in a safe country”, said Wieslander.

He told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the reason Sweden got overwhelmed last autumn was because Denmark functioned as a “transit country”.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said that the Schengen accord, which provides for borderless travel across most of the 28-nation European Union, was dependent on better protection of the EU’s frontiers.

During the peak of the migrant crisis in autumn, over 1,000 asylum seekers crossed the bridge to Sweden on a daily basis.

Danish rail operator DSB said that “fewer than 100” passengers were stopped from entering Sweden for not having proper identification.

“It’s as if we are building a Berlin Wall here”, said Michael Randropp, a spokesman for the local Kystbanen commuters’ association.

Joakim Ruist, a macroeconomist and migration researcher at the University of Gothenburg’s School of Business, said Europe would eventually have to forge a new refugee policy. Under Schengen rules, members can ask for a six-month exemption from the agreement on free circulation in exceptional circumstances.