Sweden's tighter border ‘not cutting asylum pleas’

Sweden's decision to introduce border checks and suspend Europe's passport-free travel rules has had no noticeable effect on the flow of asylum-seekers, AP reports.

According to the Swedish Migration Agency, 1,676 people applied for asylum on Thursday, the day the border checks were established.

That's slightly more than the 1,653 who applied on Wednesday. About half of the asylum-seekers were Afghans, who have overtaken Syrians as the biggest group coming to Sweden.

“Police aren't turning away people who want to seek asylum in Sweden, but the border checks require migrants to register with authorities and make it harder to use Sweden as a transit country to get to Norway and Finland,” it reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the influx of refugees to Europe and the Syrian civil war will play a major role in talks at the Group of 20 summit starting Sunday.

“We have to concentrate all our diplomatic efforts" in the face of the wave of migrants,” Merkel said, adding that refugees and Syria "will play a large role in many talks" at the G-20 meeting in Antalya, Turkey.

Merkel, who faces pressure to limit refugee arrivals in Germany, said in a video address to local politicians from her conservative bloc that Germany is doing its bit to secure freedom of movement in Europe's passport-free travel zone.

“If everyone seals themselves off, then Europe and the (passport-free) Schengen area will no longer be what they were.”