Sweden introduces border controls

 

Sweden has introduced identity checks for travellers from Denmark in an attempt to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the country.

 

All travellers wanting to cross the Oresund Bridge by train or bus, or use ferry services, will be refused entry Sweden introduces Border Controls without the necessary documents.

 

 

An estimated 20,000 commuters daily cross the Oresund bridge, which connects the Swedish cities of Malmo and Lund with the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

Direct journeys from Copenhagen's main railway station to Sweden will no longer be available and the changes are expected to add around 30 minutes to the current 40-minute commute.

Rail commuters heading to Sweden will now have to change trains at Copenhagen Airport and go through ID checkpoints.

Sweden received more than 150,000 asylum applications in 2015

Note

Under the new Swedish law, brought in late last year, transport companies will be fined 50,000 Swedish krona (£4,000; €5,400) if travellers to Sweden do not have a valid photo ID.

The Swedish government secured a temporary exemption from the European Union's open-border Schengen agreement, in order to impose the border controls.

Last month Sweden's state-owned train operator SJ announced it would stop services to and from Denmark because it could not carry out identity checks demanded by the new law.

Sweden's SJ train company said it would not have time to check people travelling between Copenhagen and Malmo over the Oresund bridge.

 

The vast majority of commuters using the Oresund bridge cross from Sweden, so the changes were expected to hit people hardest as they return from work during the evening rush hour.

To comply with the regulations, fencing has been erected around one of the platforms at the railway station at Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport