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Refugee crisis: Sweden considering new law allowing 'emergency' closure of Øresund Bridge to Denmark

Ministers have not yet finalised the proposal, which they say would only be implemented in an "emergency"
  • @lizziedearden
A police officer checks legitimation from a driver from Denmark at Lernacken on the Swedish side of the Oresund strait November 12, 2015. AFP/Getty Images

The Swedish government is drawing up a law that would allow it to stop traffic across the famous Øresund Bridge connecting it to Denmark as the refugee crisis continues.

A proposal, which has not yet been finalised, would be part of new legislation bringing in compulsory identity checks on all public transport entering Sweden as part of efforts to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving.

A spokesperson for Sweden’s infrastructure minister said the plan would allow the government to stop road traffic over the bridge and along other roads into Sweden, but not trains.

Sweden's deputy PM cries while announcing refugee u-turn

Around 20,000 vehicles cross Øresund Bridge every day, going to and fro between the Danish capital of Copenhagen and Sweden's third largest city Malmo for work and freight.

Anna Johansson, the infrastructure minister, told local news agency TT that closing the bridge would be a “very dramatic measure” only to be used in an emergency.

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"Our intent and our hope is that we will not have to use this legal possibility," she said.

Sweden, which has a population of around 9.6 million people, has proposed a number of changes to tighten migration with up to 190,000 asylum seekers expected to arrive this year.

Thousands of refugees continue to risk their lives crossing to Italy and Greece and continue their journey to western Europe, even as political will to welcome them wanes and winter makes conditions ever more treacherous.

Refugee crisis - in pictures

Refugee crisis - in pictures

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    A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos

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    A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said

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    Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year

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    Firemen carry the body of a child after refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos. Greek leaders were among those at the meeting in Brussels

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    The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos

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    Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

    Getty Images

  • 7/17

    A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

    Getty Images

  • 8/17

    Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos

    Reuters

  • 9/17

    An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

    Getty Images

  • 10/17

    A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos

    EPA

  • 11/17

    A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

    Getty Images

  • 12/17

    Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija

    Getty Images

  • 13/17

    People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija

    AP

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    Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day

    Getty Images

  • 15/17

    An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France

    Getty Images

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    A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea

    EPA

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    Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey

    Getty Images


The United Nations refugee agency says it's "deeply concerned" about the violence at the border between Greece and Macedonia where scuffles have broken out between different migrant groups. 

A Moroccan man died under unclear circumstances at the border on Thursday, in an incident the UNHCR said underlined the need for authorities to restore security. 

Macedonian authorities are allowing only people from the war-torn countries of Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq to cross from Greece on their way to other EU countries, sparking protests and sit-ins by stranded asylum seekers from other nations.

Meanwhile, Greek authorities said they found a woman’s body and were searching for three other refugees who were feared dead after their boat sank off the island of Farmakonissi in the Aegean Sea.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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