Open EU borders are a paradise for weapons and human smugglers, say Danish police

[The Riddler]

Senior Danish police officers are complaining that the EU’s open borders under the Schengen agreement have made it simple for criminal groups to smuggle weapons and women into Denmark.

“The Schengen agreement has made it much easier to move weapons around Europe and to get them into Denmark. This is a problem as crime becomes much more serious when weapons are involved,” says Henrik Svindt of the Copenhagen Special Unit for Gang Crime and Women Traficking.

The issue of how to stop weapons and women smuggling into Denmark has risen on the Danish political agenda after the Social Democratic Party recently suggested stricter border controls. The Danish People’s Party has demanded for some time that border controls should be introduced.

DOCUMENTATION: What is the Schengen area? (External link)

Weapons
Svindt is not prepared to say whether border controls should be re-introduced, but notes that the parties to the current gang warfare in Denmark are able to get hold of AK47 and Uzi automatic weapons with ease. The weapons are often smuggled to Denmark from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

The National Commissioner’s Office has confiscated more than 170 weapons over the past two months, although it is not clear how they got into the country.

Svindt says the current situation cannot be compared to the situation before borders were opened in 2001.

“Criminals used to bash each other up. Now there is a tendency that criminals are more willing to use firearms,” Svindt says.

Woman
The Head of Copenhagen Police Women’s Trafficking Unit René Hansen says human traffickers hardly need to speculate on how to get women into Denmark.

“Once the prostitutes are in the Schengen area, it’s easy to send them up here – and that is, of course, a problem,” Hansen says, adding that Denmark has many trafficked women from Eastern Europe and Africa.

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“We should increase searches of buses from Eastern Europe – then we can find the girls who don’t have the necessary papers. Traffickers will always try to send women to Denmark – so we try to catch the traffickers. But in principle it would be better to try to prevent the women from coming here, rather than letting them come in and then investigating them to stop the traffic,” Hansen says.

Police decision
The National Commissioner’s Office policy, however, is not to increase border controls, but rather to try to catch those behind the traffic in women and weapons.

“But if senior police officers feel that it would be an idea to increase controls buses from Eastern Europe, then they can do so. It’s their decision,” says Justice Minister Brian Mikkelsen

Schengen: Weapons and women smuggler’s paradise - Politiken.dk

[He3]

Why can those pesky Danish police not see that this is ideologically driven. They should stay out of politics. All for the greater good .... that's it isn't it?

[ActuallyYourWrong]

The wheels will come off this EU wagon eventually when everyone wakes up.

[geraghd]

The wheels will come off this EU wagon eventually when everyone wakes up.

Indeed. Can't wait to get back to the way things were in Europe before the EU.

[seabhcan]

Surely we'd all be safer if every county in Ireland had a wall around it, and you needed permission to cross?

[reknaw]

This is a problem common to all of the Schengen countries, but I wonder why it seems to be more acute in Denmark than elsewhere. I live in the Schengen area and the problems of human trafficking and prostitution have not become noticeably worse here in my country in recent years .

Apart from the fact that the Danish policeman you mentioned is making a quite un-Scandinavian and indeed rather questionable foray into politics for someone who is a law-enforcement officer rather than a policymaker or legislator, I feel his proposed solution is far too simplistic and of an "all eggs in one basket" kind.

The problems have to be tackled in a variety of ways, not least through effective intelligence gathering throughout the country rather than just causing long delays at the border. That will only victimise other EU countries whose trade flows through strategically situated Denmark, be bad for Denmark's own trade and tourism, and the criminals will adapt to the situation anyway.

[Staropramen]

Surely we'd all be safer if every county in Ireland had a wall around it, and you needed permission to cross?

You could be on to something there, Dublin Independance Party has a nice ring to it. Repatriation off all non indigenous Dubs. Bye bye Bertie.

[sheamuseen]

The wheels will come off this EU wagon eventually when everyone wakes up.

actually you're wrong or at least your moniker is - ActuallyYourWrong should be spelled ActuallyYoureWrong

[ibis]

You could be on to something there, Dublin Independance Party has a nice ring to it. Repatriation off all non indigenous Dubs. Bye bye Bertie.

Wait - why should we have to put up people from other parts of Dublin?

[Ramon21]

Indeed. Can't wait to get back to the way things were in Europe before the EU.

Indeed me either, can't wait to kill some brits and irish.
And it will be legal, since every country have there own laws.
Yeaaaaa I hope it will happen soon.