Sweden's government has dropped a plan to tighten control over the influx of migrants by halting road traffic on a main bridge from Denmark in an emergency after a top legal watchdog and the opposition objected, the interior minister said on Tuesday.
The minority center-left government said in November it would widen ID checks to include all public transport to Sweden and tighten asylum rules in a bid to reduce the number of asylum seekers.
Last week it said the plans included a proposal to make it possible for the government to halt road — but not railway — traffic to Sweden on security grounds in an emergency, including on the Oresund bridge to Denmark.
The Oresund bridge, linking Denmark's capital Copenhagen with Sweden's third-largest city Malmo, is extensively used by commuters as well as for freight traffic. Around 20,000 motor vehicles cross it every day.
But on Monday, the Swedish Council on Legislation, the top legal watchdog, said the plans to tighten the borders resembled martial law and would violate refugees' right to seek asylum in Sweden.
Interior Minister Anders Ygeman told state broadcastere SVT on Tuesday that the government would not push the proposals through parliament with support from the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats only and that it would now focus on widenening ID checks where it has broader backing.
"We have had a discussion both in the government and with the opposition after the Council's criticism, and we make the overall assessment that we back down from the authorization about the bridge and proceed with the part about ID checks," Ygeman said.
The country expects up to 190,000 asylum seekers this year.
Sweden imposed temporary border controls in early November, the first in over two decades and a turnaround in its generous migration policies.
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