Sweden’s border controls will primarily extend to the bridge across the Oresund strait separating Sweden and Denmark and ferry ports in the region. Officials stressed that anyone seeking to apply for asylum in Sweden would not be turned back, and said that the intention is to deter those hoping to cross Sweden to reach other Scandinavian countries, and to create a more orderly process of arrival for refugees.
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Although Sweden will continue to absorb asylum seekers within their borders, they have called upon other European countries to share the moral responsibility for alleviating the current humanitarian crisis.
The move came as Sweden, long known for its generous asylum policy, struggles with a historic influx that has spurred anti-immigrant rhetoric and a spate of arson attacks targeting migrants this year.
David Cameron is willing to commit nearly half a billion of the UK’s aid budget over the next five years in an effort to stop the flow of migrants and refugees to Europe.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven explained the emergency measure, defending the decision of the authorities.
A report on Aljazeera America news channel noted that about 10,000 refugees arrived in Sweden last week, with 2,000 entering in one day – setting new records. With all of these European countries closing their borders, there are concerns that the Schengen zone, an important marker of a unified Europe, will eventually collapse. We need another system.
Swedish customs on Thursday began checking documents along the country’s southern borders, temporarily scrapping free movement into the country after 14 years without border checks under the European Union’s Schengen agreement.
“On the contrary. They will have their case heard, but we need to (regain) control”, he added.
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar is quoted by the state STA news agency as telling his Croatian counterpart Zoran Milanovic the barrier is on Slovenian land and has nothing to do with the unresolved border issues left over from the 1990s breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
“We haven’t heard rhetoric like this in Europe since the 1930s”. So I think they could really benefit the Swedish economy.
HILLEVI LARSSON, Social Democrat MP: Absolutely convinced that we can do it, because we have the experiences from the ’90s, when we took many refugees in a short time, so we have learned from that, and now we have many old people.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Don’t you think Sweden and Germany have really made a huge mistake in opening the doors wide open?
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“Sweden is the country that has taken the greatest responsibility”, Ygeman said in a webcast press conference late on Wednesday from Stockholm. Macedonian border police were allowing groups of 50 people to cross roughly every 10-15 minutes.
