It said it took the step because a surge in new arrivals had resulted in a threat to public order.
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In practice, this means officers are banned from singling out passport checks on the thousands who cross the bridge to Denmark or ferry to Germany every day on ethnicity, language spoken, or skin colour, reports Swedish television.
Swedish police started checking trains for migrants on Thursday, imposing the first large-scale border controls in two decades, a move criticized by one opposition party as ending a tradition of openness and by others as being too little too late. Ygeman mentioned the refugees will be given options to apply for asylum in Sweden or leave the country.
Until today it has been common for people to travel between Sweden, Finland, and Denmark without the need to carry identification provided they are not flying.
In a statement sent through Mikulas Vymetal, a Protestant priest, to the local CTK news agency, the asylum-seekers complain they’ve been detained too long and say they would rather die than return home. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told the gathering: “This is not an issue for one or two or free countries – this is an issue for the whole European Union”.
The decision reflects Sweden’s fears that it had reached its limit for dealing with an influx of asylum seekers with experts forecasting that by the end of the year 190,000 will have arrived. The border controls came at the request of Sweden’s Migration Agency and can be extended for 20-day periods.
Sweden receives the most refugees per capita in the EU.
Many migrants are now coming through Turkey and the western Balkans rather than across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa.
The European Commission has formally authorised the temporary re-imposition of border controls in Germany and Sweden.
Sweden has imposed temporary border controls to stem a record inflow of refugees as the Nordic nation pleads with the rest of Europe to help deal with the biggest migration wave seen in the region since World War II.
“The Danish Immigration Service is working to find accommodation for the growing number of asylum seekers, including in the form of regular housing but also though the use of mattress solutions in schools, community centres, etc”, the government’s plan reads.
Viktor Orban, attending a migration summit in Malta, told Hungarian state television that Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – the other countries in the so-called Visegrad Group, or V4 – were also taking part in the initiative set up “in the interests of stopping the refugee wave at the southern borders of Greece”.
Meanwhile, Slovenia began building a razor-wire fence along its border with Croatia, a day after the government said it would install “temporary technical obstacles”, but stressed official border crossings would remain open and that the move was created to restore order.
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VALLETTA, Malta (AP) – European Union leader Donald Tusk is casting doubt over whether the EU can meet Britain’s demands for staying in the 28-nation bloc.
