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Sara and Philip Adair with their children Ebba, 7, and Kasper, 5, left their home in Basel half a day after Sweden’s decision to bar entry to Denmark and the UK. They were going to celebrate Christmas at Sara’s parents’ home in Vellinge, Skåne, and they had wanted it. When they left home early in the morning, they knew about the government’s decision, but did not know that it also applied to travelers in transit from Kastrup.
Now the family is crying and hugging when the border police announce that Father Philip must take the next train back to Denmark, because he is from Northern Ireland.
– We could not in our wildest imagination believe that this decision would apply to us as a family, when three of us are Swedish, we are married, we have children together and all documents with us, says Sara Adair.
On the other hand About several hundred meters long that has separated domestic and foreign traffic at Hyllie train station since the great refugee crisis in 2016, says Sara Adair’s father, Karl-Gustav Andersson.
He’s frustrated and he’s crying too.
– I spoke last night with the consular unit of the Foreign Ministry and they told me there would be no problems. If we had received clear information about what was happening, this would never have had to happen, he says, trying in vain to persuade the border police that something is not right.
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Photo: Anders Hansson
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Photo: Anders Hansson
Soon after, the children are forced to watch the police escort Father Philip Adair to the train to Denmark.
When DN contacts the family later that day, he has taken a flight to Zurich, and from there he has booked a new plane ticket to Gothenburg.
– Hopefully I’m in Skåne around 23 tonight. Therefore, you are welcome in Sweden as long as you do not travel to Denmark. We think it was Donald Trump who divided families at the border. This is a completely desperate situation, completely unreasonable, says Sara Adair.
Her and her family is far from the only ones to be divided on the train platform this Tuesday, two days before Christmas Eve. Every 20 minutes, trains arrive from Denmark, and at each arrival, shocked travelers find the news that they or their relatives will not enter.
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Photo: Anders Hansson
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Photo: Anders Hansson
Caroline Sundberg and her partner Blazhe Todorovski have traveled from Brussels to celebrate Christmas and New Years with the family in Malmö.
– This is not the first time that Stockholm has made a decision that does not work in Skåne. It’s not that we travel here for pleasure but to spend time with loved ones that we haven’t seen in a long time. We were also going to celebrate my 30th birthday. But now my partner has to leave the country, and he doesn’t go into Denmark either, so we don’t know what’s going on, says Caroline Sundberg.
A few meters away Malmö resident Nenne Krmpotic stands up and cries as she trembles. She tries to put her hands through the iron fence that separates her from her fiancé Nuno Brito, twists her fingers around his and doesn’t really understand how this situation could have arisen.
Nenne Krmpotic with her fiancé Nuno Brito from Portugal. Nenne and Nuno have a three-year-old together, but Nuno lives and works in Portugal.
Photo: Anders Hansson
The couple lives separately – he lives in Portugal and is a Portuguese citizen, she lives in Malmö. Together they have a three-year-old boy who goes to kindergarten in Malmö and waits for dad to come to decorate Christmas together. But now the border police have taken the father’s passport and informed him that he must return; he is not welcome in Sweden at the moment.
– How do I say this to my son? What does it really take for a parent to see their child? Portugal has had severe restrictions throughout the pandemic and we have not been seen since last summer. But the only thing the police tell us is that it should be the same for everyone.
The decision to close the border against Denmark was taken over by the Swedish government on Monday to prevent the spread of the new mutated variant of the coronavirus, which has been found mainly in the UK, but also in Denmark.
According to the new rules, only Swedish and Danish citizens who can prove that they work or live in Sweden can cross the border.
– We closed the border so that Danes do not pass even tourists and have fun, said Chancellor Ann Linde in an interview on TV4 Nyhetsmorgon on Tuesday.
In Denmark, the decision on closed borders has caused irritation, especially as it means that transit traffic to and from Bornholm via Ystad is not allowed, making travel to and from the island difficult.
Denmark Minister of Transport Benny Engelbrecht tells Danish TV2 that he has been in contact with his Swedish minister colleague with the call for rethinking, and Bornholm Mayor Winnie Grosbøll describes the situation as chaotic.
– We are quite moved on Bornholm. Christmas is two days away and this affects people’s opportunities to come and go, he tells Danmarks Radio.
At around 3 p.m. on Tuesday, the Swedish police had turned away more than 100 people who had tried to enter Sweden through Denmark.
The border with Denmark is closed until January 21.
DN has contacted the border police for comment.
Read more: Entry stops from the UK and Denmark
