GERMANY INSISTS ON TOUGHER BORDER CONTROLS BY SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
Germany is irritated about the increasing number of illegal immigrants entering the country from Scandinavia. German authorities have set a time limit for Denmark to introduce increased entry-controls on travellers from Sweden until 24 January and announced sanctions against Scandinavian bus and ferry companies transporting insufficiently documented foreigners.
Within the last few months, German border police intercepted more than 500 illegal immigrants at its borders with Scandinavia. Most of them were Kosovo-Albanian refugees rejected in Sweden and trying to make their way via Denmark to Germany to escape deportation. For the time being, Germany does not send back Albanians to Kosovo. Until now, Denmark sent back the Kosovo Albanians turned away at the German border to Sweden, from where they were deported back to former Yugoslavia. According to the Swedish police, some 10-15 refugees a day are sent back to the Swedish port of Malmö, in this way.
The Danish government is expected to comply with the German demand by engaging several hundred additional police at its ferry-ports in Helsingör and Copenhagen, the main ports of entry for travellers from Sweden.
According to the EU's policy, the Danish border with Sweden is considered as a "common external border" requiring increased control, but this conflicts with Denmark's obligations as a member of the Nordic Passport Union. According to this treaty travellers do not have to show their passport when crossing borders inside Scandinavia. The Danish government now stresses that the planned increased control is provided for by a clause in the treaty of the Nordic Union that permits random checks. A speaker of the Danish ministry of Justice has affirmed that the new practice does not imply a requirement for "Nordic citizens" to show their passport. "You just have to show that you have a right to enter Denmark", he said, and stressed that speaking Swedish was enough a proof.
However, the increased checks are likely to lead to massive discrimination of persons with a non-Nordic appearance.
Germany has set a similar dead-line to Swedish ferry companies serving German ports. From January 24, companies transporting illegal immigrants will not only have to pay the travel back but also be fined with up to 150,000 swedish crowns per person.
The German authorities' "advice" to Swedish ferry companies on how to ensure increased checks without producing annoying delays for travellers is unambiguous:
At Swedish ports, cars boarding the ferries shall be split up in two separate lines on the car deck: a "cream-line" for Nordic looking passengers and a "suspect line" for passengers who, due to their appearance or language, do not seem to belong to an EU-country. Upon arrival at the German ports, the police then will let the "cream-line" pass the border check first, in order to concentrate on the "suspect line", leaving the ferry last.
Swedish shipping companies are opposed to the German demands. Ferry personal cannot be required to carry out police functions, they say, and the two-lines system proposed by the German police is technically impracticable and would lead to unacceptable discrimination of passengers with a "non-European" appearance. But German authorities say the practice is in accordance with German legislation on foreigners. German border police officers will be sent to the Swedish port of Trelleborg in order to instruct Swedish ferry personal on German entry regulations.
Source: Dagens Nyheter, 18.1.94