Swedish police started checking trains for migrants on Thursday, imposing the first large-scale border controls in two decades, a move criticised by one opposition party as ending a tradition of openness and by others as being too little too late.
Officers waited at Hyllie station south of the city of Malmo, the first stop in Sweden on a route from Denmark, checked passengers' papers and led about 50 people away in the space of one and a half hours.
The controls by a Nordic state that touts itself as a "humanitarian superpower" underscored how the flow of refugees into the European Union is straining its prized system of open internal borders close to breaking point.
The Centre Party, a member of the centre-right opposition alliance, has criticised the decision by centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, saying it ends an open-door tradition.
Officers waited at Hyllie station south of the city of Malmo, the first stop in Sweden on a route from Denmark, checked passengers' papers and led about 50 people away in the space of one and a half hours.
The controls by a Nordic state that touts itself as a "humanitarian superpower" underscored how the flow of refugees into the European Union is straining its prized system of open internal borders close to breaking point.
The Centre Party, a member of the centre-right opposition alliance, has criticised the decision by centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, saying it ends an open-door tradition.
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