Sweden reinstated border controls on Thursday in a bid to gain control over the massive influx of migrants arriving in the country, without blocking the steady flow of asylum seekers.
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.
Support has also risen for the far-right Sweden Democrats, recent opinion polls show.
Sweden, a country of 9.8 million people, has taken in more refugees as a proportion of its population than any other country in Europe.
The Scandinavian country expects to receive up to 190,000 asylum seekers this year, which is the equivalent of 1.5 million people arriving in a country the size of Germany, and more than double the 80,000 Sweden took in last year.
The influx has strained Sweden's capacity to take care of the new arrivals and authorities have recently warned that they were no longer able to provide housing for them.
"People are forced to sleep in tents, in offices and in evacuation centres" which are normally used for natural disasters, Migration Agency spokesman Mikael Hvinlund said.
"We are not fulfilling our mission, which is to offer a roof to everyone... Re-establishing border controls can help us," he said.
On Thursday at 12:00 pm (1100 GMT), police began carrying out identification checks on passengers travelling on trains crossing the bridge over the Oresund strait, which separates Sweden from Denmark, an AFP journalist said.
Police were also checking papers at terminals for ferries arriving in southern Sweden from Denmark and Germany.
Those are the routes most used by migrants.
- 'Not a fence' -
"This is not a fence. We need to make sure that we have control ... We have to make sure we know who is coming to Sweden," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said.
People arriving in Sweden without valid identification documents would be allowed to seek asylum, but those who do not want to do so -- for example those who simply want to transit through Sweden -- would be refused entry.
"Introducing border controls is not to prevent people from coming to Sweden to seek asylum," the head of the Swedish Migration Agency, Anders Danielsson, told Swedish news agency TT.
"On the contrary. They will have their case heard, but we need to (regain) control," he added.
The decision to reinstate border checks is temporary and valid for 10 days but can be renewed for up to six months under Schengen regulations on free movement.
Swedish police officials said Thursday they were preparing to have the controls in place for six months, though the government has made no such request yet.
Authorities have also expressed concern about the large number of unaccompanied minors arriving in the country -- 23,000 have arrived so far this year, a sharp rise from previous years.
"We don't have control over the unaccompanied minors," the migration agency's Hvinlund said.
Sweden last week asked Brussels to relocate to other EU countries some of the people it has taken in.
Sweden reinstated border controls on Thursday in a bid to gain control over the massive influx of migrants arriving in the country, without blocking the steady flow of asylum seekers.
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.
Support has also risen for the far-right Sweden Democrats, recent opinion polls show.
Sweden, a country of 9.8 million people, has taken in more refugees as a proportion of its population than any other country in Europe.
The Scandinavian country expects to receive up to 190,000 asylum seekers this year, which is the equivalent of 1.5 million people arriving in a country the size of Germany, and more than double the 80,000 Sweden took in last year.
The influx has strained Sweden’s capacity to take care of the new arrivals and authorities have recently warned that they were no longer able to provide housing for them.
“People are forced to sleep in tents, in offices and in evacuation centres” which are normally used for natural disasters, Migration Agency spokesman Mikael Hvinlund said.
“We are not fulfilling our mission, which is to offer a roof to everyone… Re-establishing border controls can help us,” he said.
On Thursday at 12:00 pm (1100 GMT), police began carrying out identification checks on passengers travelling on trains crossing the bridge over the Oresund strait, which separates Sweden from Denmark, an AFP journalist said.
Police were also checking papers at terminals for ferries arriving in southern Sweden from Denmark and Germany.
Those are the routes most used by migrants.
– ‘Not a fence’ –
“This is not a fence. We need to make sure that we have control … We have to make sure we know who is coming to Sweden,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said.
People arriving in Sweden without valid identification documents would be allowed to seek asylum, but those who do not want to do so — for example those who simply want to transit through Sweden — would be refused entry.
“Introducing border controls is not to prevent people from coming to Sweden to seek asylum,” the head of the Swedish Migration Agency, Anders Danielsson, told Swedish news agency TT.
“On the contrary. They will have their case heard, but we need to (regain) control,” he added.
The decision to reinstate border checks is temporary and valid for 10 days but can be renewed for up to six months under Schengen regulations on free movement.
Swedish police officials said Thursday they were preparing to have the controls in place for six months, though the government has made no such request yet.
Authorities have also expressed concern about the large number of unaccompanied minors arriving in the country — 23,000 have arrived so far this year, a sharp rise from previous years.
“We don’t have control over the unaccompanied minors,” the migration agency’s Hvinlund said.
Sweden last week asked Brussels to relocate to other EU countries some of the people it has taken in.
