The anti-mass migration Danish People’s Party (DF) and the Danish Conservatives are considering backing legislation to toughen the border with Sweden due to the high number of Islamists in the country.
The ruling Danish Liberal Alliance have said they will consider the proposal but say it may do more harm than good. The two right-wing parties cited a new study in Sweden which alleged there has been an “explosive increase” in the number of Islamists and say tougher border checks with Sweden could prevent potential terrorism, Berlingske reports.
Liberal Alliance MP Laura Lindahl said the party believed in the past that border controls were not advantageous to ordinary citizens. She said the government would task a team of experts to determine the threat of Islamic extremism from Sweden before making any concrete moves to control the border.
“There must be a real threat there to make it worth introducing border controls measured against the disadvantages this entails for ordinary people who every day cross the border to carry out their jobs,” Lindahl said.
Earlier this month, the Swedish intelligence agency Sapo said mass migration had greatly increased the numbers of Islamists in the country. In 2010, it was thought that there were only around 200 jihadist extremists in the country and the number had grown to “thousands”.
Danish People’s Party politician Martin Henriksen said he did not agree with the government’s hesitation. “We must have border controls at all Danish borders – including against Sweden,” Henriksen said.
“And it only gets more relevant that there has recently been a terrorist attack in Stockholm, there is a large unrest in Sweden, and the Sapo has warned there are many hardcore Islamists.”
Henriksen noted a case of a Syrian asylum seeker who was arrested in Germany after being turned away from the Danish border when there are border controls in place. The Syrian, an Islamic State sympathiser, was caught with bomb materials in November but was not formally charged with plotting an act of terror until May.
“If people know that there is better control in Denmark than in other countries, then it may be that they drop their plans here,” Henriksen said.
The DF has also proposed to erect a border fence on their German border to prevent any extremists or further waves of migrants from sneaking into the country. The DF made the proposal after a visit to Hungary where they were able to inspect Hungary’s fence on the Serbian border.