Sweden says border control will prevent people from staying in country illegally

An Afghan woman holds a baby as other migrants sit on a bench with a local resident who reads a newspaper at Victoria square, where hundreds migrants and refugees stay temporarily before trying to continue their trip to more prosperous northern European countries, in Athens, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. More than 770,000 people have arrived in the EU by sea so far this year overwhelming border authorities and receptions centers. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) 

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The latest about the flow of people traveling across Europe in search of a better life. All times local.

11:05 p.m.

Swedish officials say the introduction of temporary border controls will help it register new arrivals and prevent people from staying in the country illegally.

Fredrik Bengtsson, spokesman for the Swedish Migration Agency, says the agency is currently picking up people by bus at the border and driving them to its offices, but "once they get there quite a lot don't enter and get registered but disappear."

Bengtsson said it is too early to say whether the number of migrants arriving in the Scandinavian country will go down and added it could even increase, if people who would otherwise have traveled to Norway and Finland decide to apply for asylum in Sweden instead.

Sweden announced earlier Wednesday it would introduce temporary border controls from noon local time Thursday until Nov. 21 to stem the large influx of migrants.

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9:50 p.m.

Sweden's interior minister says the move to introduce temporary border controls is a way to "bring order" to the Swedish asylum system while also sending a signal to the European Union.

Anders Ygeman said Wednesday that "Sweden is the country that has taken the greatest responsibility for the refugee crisis" and that "the other countries also have to take their responsibility."

It wasn't immediately clear whether the move would allow Sweden to turn people away at the border. But it would hinder people from transiting through the country to reach neighboring Finland and Norway.

Ygeman said migrants arriving at the border would have to decide whether to apply for asylum in Sweden or to turn back around.

Most migrants are coming to Sweden by boat from Germany or across the Oresund bridge from Denmark.

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9:30 p.m.

French President Francois Hollande says "maximal" political and diplomatic pressure should be applied on the "unscrupulous leaders" of Eritrea, whose citizens have been fleeing in droves for years to Europe.

Hollande said Eritrea "is becoming empty of its own population." He spoke Wednesday at a European Union-African summit on migrants in Malta.

Eritreans are fleeing what human rights watchdogs call an oppressive state, where jailing can last indefinitely and conscription can last years. They constitute one of the largest groups from Africa seeking asylum in Europe. Tens of thousands have escaped to Europe, many making perilous sailings in smugglers' boats across the Mediterranean to Italy.

Hollande said that Europe's dealings with Eritrea require "a job to be done which is political, and which needs a strict and demanding diplomacy."

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9:15 p.m.

The head of the African Union has warned against setting up migrant reception centers in Africa where people are held until they can be granted asylum or be sent home.

AU chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said Wednesday that such facilities "whatever we call them, will become de-facto detention centers."

She said that women and children in particular would be in danger if held there.

Her remarks came during a summit of European Union and African leaders, where the EU is looking to halt the flow of people coming from Africa and send those already in Europe back more quickly.

Zuma also hit out at some European countries that "have taken a fortress approach" to migration.

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9:10 p.m.

Sweden says it will introduce temporary border controls to stem the flow of migrants into the Scandinavian country.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the border controls will be introduced at noon Thursday local time and last initially for ten days until Nov. 21.

Sweden says migration authorities are overstretched and nearly 200,000 asylum-seekers are expected this year. Relative to population size — Sweden has 9.7 million people — no other EU country comes close. Read more here