Australian National Review – EU country tightens border controls amid gang violence — RT World News

Denmark will tighten border controls with Sweden after gang violence flared up in the country in recent weeks, the Danish Ministry of Justice has announced.

Police will step up checks on trains crossing the Öresund Strait, which connects the Swedish city of Malmö with the Danish capital Copenhagen and is the main crossing point between the two countries. They will also increase the use of camera surveillance.

“We are increasing surveillance, partly to increase safety, but also to prevent Swedish child soldiers from coming to Copenhagen to carry out tasks related to gang conflicts,” Peter Hummelgaard, the Danish Minister of Justice, said on Friday, quoted by several media.

The minister announced this week that there have been 25 incidents since April in which Danish criminal gangs have hired people he called “staff.” “child soldiers” committing crimes in the country. In the past two weeks alone, three shootings have been linked to Swedish teenagers, he said.

“We are now tightening the screws further, also in the short term by strengthening efforts at the border with Sweden,” according to Hummelgaard.

Sweden has been hit by a growing wave of gang-related shootings and bombings in recent years. According to a Financial Times report, citing Swedish police, powerful criminal gangs often use children to commit murders because they are said to receive light sentences if found guilty.

Hummelgaard called it “a terrifying phenomenon” that Danish gangs hired young Swedes to “their dirty work.”

Denmark has a tougher approach to immigration and dealing with criminal gangs than its neighbour. Measures implemented have included the forced relocation of non-Danes from areas where they are in the majority, as well as the doubling of sentences for crimes.

The Justice Ministry also said it was strengthening intelligence ties with Sweden by permanently stationing an officer with the Stockholm police, and that it was expanding exchanges of officers with law enforcement in southern Sweden. Facial recognition technology could potentially be used for very serious crimes such as attempted murder, the ministry said.