No customs on the Öresund Bridge during SVT's visit

It's a hazy Thursday in Helsingborg. Across the Sound, the ferries come into battle, with new traffic crossing the border. During the day there are four ferries per hour.

Today, the Customs Administration's staff are here and in control, and it gives quick results. A car with Dutch registration plates is waved in and two people are taken into custody. As customs begin to search the car, you will find several narcotic drugs, including ecstasy, amphetamine and cocaine.

How often does this happen?

- Daily, in varying quantities. We remain employed, says Martin Petersson, Deputy Border Protection Manager at the Customs Administration in the southern region.

While this strike is going on, the cars are rolling past outside. There are no more staff available, so no one makes checks.

- Today there are four customs officials and we have two arrested and one whole car to go through and reported. It is more or less what they will do the rest of their work until they go home, to deal with this matter. So now there are no customs on the border, says Martin Petersson.

If there is a new car with similar cargo then?

- Well then, just drive in.

If the controls are sparse in Helsingborg today, it is even sparse in Malmö. At Lernacken, a stray stream of vehicles comes across the Öresund Bridge. The border police are there, but the customs do not make any checks on this day. Resources are not enough for that.

- At the moment we have no staff at the Öresund Bridge, but the customs officials are in service in Helsingborg today, says Martin Petersson.

- Here in the southern region we do not currently have the opportunity to have operations 24-7 at all entry points, because we do not have staff there. One assessment is that we would need to be around twice as many to be able to have that type of control business.

How much do you now miss?

- The Customs Administration estimates that we take 5-10 percent of what is brought in.

On the Öresund train, however, there are people today, and there are several seizures. But up on the bridge the cars roll on. In the ports of Ystad and Trelleborg, there are also bad checks for the day.

At the same time as the customs are to look for drugs and weapons, they have also been commissioned to make outbound checks, in search of theft carried out of the country. Martin Petersson thinks that you might need to get on your feet with other chores in that case.

Inside the customs office, a test confirms that there are drugs, at least 400 tablets of various kinds. Alcohol smuggling is one of the things that gets prioritized down. While the other customs are working on the strike, Border Police Martin Petersson asks to go through a suspicious car. After a quick check, the car rolls on.

- It was a car that had been in Germany and traded alcohol. We have taken his information and set up an intelligence notice on that vehicle, because he has been known since before about suspicions of alcohol.

Did he have to go on?

- Yes, we have no staff to handle it today.

So then he has to go?

- We have no other choice, says Martin Petersson.