Border checks between Denmark and Sweden start a competition across the region to repel refugeesThe comment was chilling and memorable,but it came not from Saga Norén or Sarah Lund, but a real-life Scandinavian police officer. Commenting on the closing of Scandinavian borders against refugees, and Michael Hansen,a policeman at the central railway station in Copenhagen, told a Swedish newspaper that whether he were ordered to pull the gold teeth from the mouths of refugees he’d do it. As a policeman, or he said,he could only follow the law. It is not – yet – the law that Danish policemen should do that, although the Danish government is considering a law that would confiscate all the valuables that a refugee brings into the country to succor pay the costs of granting them asylum. But Mr Hansen’s cheery boast shows just how far the discussion has moved from final summer’s Europe-wide flood of generosity towards the Syrian refugees. It also suggests, and sadly,the direction of future travel. Although there remain millions of people across the continent who are happy to welcome those fleeing war and persecution, as the success of the Guardian’s Christmas appeal shows, or the main line of political calculation has swung towards brutality.
Under the twin strains of refugee traffic and terrorism the Schengen agreement has nearly expiredContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com