by WorldTribune Staff, September 21, 2018
A report by EU inspectors which concluded that Sweden has among the worst border control operations in Europe was suppressed to keep the news from influencing the recent Swedish elections, a report said.
In a report titled “Evaluation of Sweden in the Field of Management of the External Borders,” the EU inspectors found that Swedish border control operations are understaffed, border personnel are poorly trained, and their failed methods increase the risk of returning jihadists who are Swedish citizens or have permanent residency slipping through undetected, the Epoch Times noted in a Sept. 20 report.
Related: Populists surge in socialist Sweden’s election, parliament deadlocked, Sept. 10, 2018
Several police officers told the Kvallsposten newspaper that police management had commented internally that the EU report would be kept under wraps until after the elections.
Migration, crime, and border control were all major election issues and contributed to huge gains made by the populist Sweden Democrats earlier this month.
A former border police employee confirmed the EU report’s findings: “The report shows what we already know: This is a two-bit operation,” the source told Kvallsposten.
Sweden instituted border controls after an unprecedented influx of refugees and migrants in 2015, but border checks were mostly for show, the source told Kvallsposten.
“There is no real border control, that is, no database checks. Only ID checks,” the source said.
Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Morgan Johansson has been informed of the preliminary findings of the EU report but has yet to comment, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Johan Westerholm, an investigative journalist with connections to the ruling Social Democratic Party, said that the weakening of Sweden’s border controls goes back farther than the current government, but said he holds Johansson responsible for much of the dismantling of Swedish border security.
“The Minister for Justice has a long history of not wanting to keep Sweden’s borders safe, including not wanting to work with the rest of Europe in the fight against terrorism,” Westerholm wrote. “Since 2010, when Johansson became chairman of the Justice Committee, the tempo and the interest for these issues were lowered radically. … All initiatives to sharpen legislation were rejected.”
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