Beginning of the end of passport-free travel in Europe?

Being an eyewitness as Europe’s borders start to close has been a weird and worrying experience.

I'm originally from Co Meath, then lived in Dublin before following a woman to Sweden, six years ago. I live in Malmö but commute across the Øresund Bridge to work in Copenhagen. Since January 4th I've needed ID to get back into Sweden.

I’m 32, and all I’ve known has been the opening up of borders, under the Schengen Agreement (even if I have still needed a passport to travel from Ireland). It has been so easy to experience different countries and meet different people. To have that closing off again is worrying.

Before the first day of the new border checks there was a lot of confusion about how the process would work. Under the new system, to get to Malmö by train from Denmark you have to change at Kastrup airport, in Copenhagen. They have people with smartphones photographing your ID before you’re allowed on to the platform, which annoys a lot of commuters. Swedes I know think this shouldn’t be happening; Danes I know are annoyed that the Swedish government is making them do this.

I haven’t experienced any delays, and I already had to change trains anyway. But I’ve had two close calls. The other day I dropped my passport; it was only when I was standing in front of the ID-check guys at Kastrup that I realised it wasn’t in my bag. Luckily, I was able to retrace my steps to the metro, where a cleaning guy had found it. I had been freaking out, worrying about how I was going to get home.

The other close call was just after Christmas, before the full extra checks started at Kastrup. There were checks on the Swedish side, and only on my way across the bridge did I realise that I didn’t have my passport with me. After I explained this to the police they let me through – but they warned me to have it for the full checks the following Monday.

I was given a certain amount of leeway as a cheeky Irish person trying to speak Swedish. Now the border officials check papers and that’s it.

The occasional Swedish customs checks on the train are another matter. Sometimes I think that racial profiling is going on, with a suspicion of people who don’t look northern European: the customs guards seem to pick people out, and ask them what they’re doing here, because they don’t look Swedish – but might not check the blondest Swede you’ve met.

Before the checks I noticed a lot of immigrants on the train; during the first week of checks I saw a good few families being escorted off at Hyllie station, on the Swedish side. But that doesn’t seem to be happening any more.

I hope that the checks won’t be permanent – that at worst they’ll be there until the summer or next winter. On the other hand, a fence at the airport that separates Danish trains from Malmö-bound trains has been concreted into the ground. That was a weird moment, seeing that go up.

A month into the new checks I have a feeling that we had been taking something for granted. The Øresund Bridge is a fantastic infrastructural achievement: in the past decade it has opened up Sweden to the rest of Europe, and opened up Copenhagen to people in Malmö. Before that it was all ferries. Although that sense of closeness has not gone with the ID checks, things aren't quite the same. I'm worried that this is the beginning of the end of passport-free travel across Europe.

- In conversation with Derek Scally

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