BY BEN KERRINGHAM
Sweden will be introducting temporary border checks to stem the tide of migrants into the country, it has been revealed today.
It took the step because a surge in new arrivals had resulted in a threat to public order.
EU Council President Donald Tusk told a summit in Malta that saving the EU’s Schengen rules on free movement was a “race against time”.
A fund of €1.8bn (£1.3bn) has been set up to help Africa tackle “the root causes of irregular migration”, but some critics claim this figure to be inadequate. Nearly a quarter of a million people from African countries have crossed the Mediterranean from Africa this year- a figure trippled by the arrival of mostly Syrians coming through Turkey and Greece.
TENSIONS
Tensions in the EU are reaching boiling point because of the growing pressures faced by countries experiencing an influx of migrants particularly Greece, Italy and Hungary. Most refugees subsequently head to Germany or Sweden – the two nations regarded as the most welcoming to refugees to claim asylum.
However Sweden said the controls it had introduced will come into effect today from midday and will last initially for 10 days.
The number of migrants heading for Sweden this year is expected to continue to grow at a ridiculously fast rate, making it home to more foreigners than any other EU nation.more per head of population than any other EU nation. The announcement will put pressure on other EU countries to share some of the burden of taking in more migrants, though it may well frighten some to follow suit and tighten their border controls.
