Norway is ready to impose border controls if the number of asylum seekers entering the country were to surge, the minister of justice and public security said on Friday.
“We are assessing various measures. Increased border control is one of the things we are considering,” Anders Anundsen told Reuters, when asked if the government was seeking ways to limit the flow of asylum seekers.
“It depends on the numbers that arrive. If they were to increase significantly or we believe we don’t have sufficient control of our entry points, then we’ll have to impose border controls. That’s something we’re continuously considering.”
Tens of thousands of migrants from Syria and other countries are traveling to the Nordic region to seek asylum, especially in neighboring Sweden, which has one of Europe’s most open policies on immigration.
EU outsider Norway, a member of the borderless Schengen area, had originally expected to receive 11,000 applications in 2015 but earlier this week said it was now more likely that 16,000-20,000 would come and that the final number could turn out to be even higher.
Some 2,300 arrived in August, up from around 550 per month in the first quarter of the year, and September data pointed to further increases.
“Unfortunately we are now seeing that both in Denmark and Sweden there is a lack of registration of people traveling through Europe,” the minister, a member of the populist anti-immigrant Progress Party, said.
On Monday the Progress Party saw its worst election result in 22 years in a local vote after its opposition to Syrian refugees put it out of step with many voters.
