Swedish migration officers have been picking people up by bus once they cross the border, before delivering them to government offices.
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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.
The decision was announced Wednesday evening (11 November) and will be effective Thursday at noon for a 10-day period which could be extended for 20 days.
The intended measures would apply to the key Oresund bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, as well as ferry terminals in southern Sweden where many asylum seekers arrive from Germany, the minister said on Wednesday.
“We also want to introduce ID controls on passenger ferries because we need better control on who is actually on these boats – it’s both a question of sea safety but also of order in our refugee reception”, Ygeman said while attending a summit on refugees in Malta. Legally, this is as long as they can control the border under Schengen rules.
Sweden’s decision to impose border controls comes as Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s foreign minister, warned Europe’s migrant crisis could spark the collapse of the EU.
The European Commission says it will give €1.8bn (£1.3bn) and it expects EU countries to pledge more.
Mikael Hvinlund of Swedish Migration Board told the press conference that the agency had asked for border controls because it can no longer fulfil its mission.
However, the agreement does allow a country to reinstate controls temporarily if there is a serious threat to its “public policy or internal security”.
Sweden is the fourth country to re-establish border controls since the start of the migrant crisis this summer.
Sweden now has the highest number of migrants per capita of any European Union country, as the bloc struggles to manage its biggest refugee emergency in decades.
Up to 190,000 people are expected to claim asylum in Sweden in 2015, more than twice as many as previously predicted.
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The PM said his government will shorten the length of residence permits, make family reunification more difficult, further cut the benefits given to refugees and asylum seekers, and make it harder for them to enter Denmark in the first place. The minority government has faced pressure also from the centre-right opposition and far-right, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats – who are rising in polls – to tighten up on refugees.
