THE bodies of 17 migrants were found washed up on Turkey’s western coast yesterday after boats taking them across the Aegean Sea towards EU member Greece sank in bad weather, the Dogan news agency reported.

    The bodies of 10 migrants were found washed up on the shore near the resort of Ayvalik, Dogan said, updating a previously reported toll.

    In a separate incident, the bodies of seven migrants were found off the resort of Dikili just to the south, it added.

    In another development, Denmark imposed temporary identity checks on its border with Germany yesterday following a similar move by Sweden, dealing a double blow to Europe’s fraying passport-free Schengen area amid a record influx of migrants.

    Sweden began checking documents of travelers from Denmark for the first time in half a century, causing delays of up to 50 minutes for trains and buses crossing the 7.9-kilometer Oresund Bridge, Europe’s longest combined road and rail bridge. However, private vehicles were exempt from the checks.

    Denmark’s prime minister said Sweden’s move gave his country no option but to impose its own border controls and he appealed to the European Union to take “collective decisions” to better protect its external borders against the tide of migrants.

    Last year some 163,000 refugees sought asylum in Sweden, the largest number for any EU country relative to its population. But with arrivals running at around 10,000 a week in November, mostly traveling through Denmark, the Swedish Government has said it is time to tighten border controls and asylum rules.

    Thousands of commuters use the Oresund Bridge to shuttle by car, train and bus between the Danish capital Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo.

    (SD-Agencies)