Border control

Border control at a US Airport

No border control: Border crossing between two Schengen Agreement states, view from Germany to the Netherlands. The Netherlands begins at the red line added to the photo.

Border crossing between Germany and the Netherlands

"Border crossing" redirects here. For other uses, see Border Crossing.

Border controls are measures taken by a country to monitor or regulate its borders. Border controls are put in place to control both the inflow as well as outflow of people, animals and goods. Specialized government agencies are usually created to perform border controls. Such agencies may perform various functions such as customs, immigration, security, quarantine, beside other functions. Official designations, jurisdictions and command structures of these agencies vary considerably.

History

Border controls were marked by their widespread absence until World War I.

Functions

Border controls exist to:

• regulate immigration (both legal and illegal)
• control the movement of citizens
• execute the customs functions as to
  • collect excise tax
  • prevent smuggling of drugs, weapons, endangered species and other illegal or hazardous material
  • control the spread of human or animal diseases (see also quarantine)

The degree of strictness of border controls depends on the country and the border concerned. In some countries, controls may be targeted at the traveler's national origin or other countries that have been visited. Others may need to be certain the traveler has paid the appropriate fees for their visas and has future travel planned out of the country. Yet others may concentrate on the contents of the travelers baggage, and imported goods to ensure nothing is being carried that might bring a biosecurity risk into the country. In states in the Schengen Area, internal border control is often virtually unnoticeable, and often only performed by means of random car or train searches in the hinterland, while controls at borders with non-member states may be rather strict.

Sometimes border controls exist on internal borders within a sovereign state. For example, in the People's Republic of China, there are border controls at the borders among the mainland and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Another example is the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, each having separate border controls from the rest of Malaysia.

See also

• Border
• Border checkpoint
• Biosecurity
• Border Guard
• Coast Guard

Further reading

• Susan and aramis "Residues of Border Control", Southern Spaces, 17 April 2011.