How Denmark imposes stricter border controls as Swedish criminal immigrant gangs expand their activities

Denmark is tightening border controls with neighboring Sweden following a series of violent crimes by Swedish gangs in the Danish capital.

Police are intensifying checks on trains crossing the Øresund Bridge, which connects Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city.

Peter Hummelgaard, the Danish Minister of Justice, said more resources would also be deployed to control car traffic at the crossing.

He said: “We are increasing surveillance, partly to increase security, but also to prevent Swedish child soldiers from coming to Copenhagen to carry out tasks related to gang conflicts.”

Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard (R) and Chief of the National Police Thorkild Fogde

Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said they are “increasing security” over the Øresund Bridge

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Hummelgaard’s statement followed the arrest of two Swedish nationals in connection with an explosion in Copenhagen the day before. It was the fourth case in less than a week involving armed perpetrators from the other side of the bridge.

The other cases involved three separate shootings in Copenhagen that were linked to “Swedish youths”.

According to the justice minister, there have been 25 incidents since April in which criminals hired what he called Swedish “child soldiers” to commit crimes in Denmark.

According to Swedish police, powerful criminal migrant gangs use children to commit murders because they get lighter sentences.

Swedish officials say drug gangs, often led by second-generation immigrants now living outside the country, have infiltrated the justice system and social security.

The Danish minister said: “There are people who are masterminds in the non-Western world — in Lebanon, in Dubai, in Iraq — who are pulling the strings and starting conflicts with each other in Copenhagen. Simply put, we do not want to tolerate that.”

Sweden has been struggling with increasing gang violence over the past decade, mainly involving fights between criminal street gangs with a migrant background, with civilians becoming victims.

This week, Swedish police arrested a 13-year-old suspect after a 25-year-old man was injured in a shooting in central Malmö early on Sunday evening.

Due to his age, the suspect was handed over to social services, as Swedish law considers anyone under the age of 15 to be a child. This means that they cannot be brought to court, but social services decide what “support and care” is needed.

Sweden went from having the lowest rate of fatal shootings in Europe to one of the highest, with 363 recorded shooting incidents and 55 people shot dead in 2023. That’s a slight decrease from the nearly 400 recorded incidents in 2022.

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The Øresund Bridge connects Sweden and Denmark

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By comparison, in the three other Scandinavian countries combined, there were only six fatal shootings.

Denmark has a stricter approach to immigration than its neighbor Sweden, leading some Swedish politicians in Stockholm to suggest copying Copenhagen’s tactics.

Some suggestions include doubling the penalties for crimes and forcibly relocating non-Danes from areas where they are in the majority.

The Swedish government said Wednesday that the Nordic countries are stepping up police cooperation and setting up a hub in Stockholm to tackle the problem, which is spreading to Norway, Finland and Denmark.

Sweden and Denmark are sending police officers to each other’s countries to “share information in real time between our countries,” Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer confirmed.