Border control
Overview
- "Border crossing" redirects here. For other uses, see Border CrossingBorder CrossingBorder Crossing may refer to:* Border Crossing , an album by saxophonist Mike Osborne.* Border Crossing , a UK hip hop collective musical group.* Border Crossing , a 2001 novel by English author Pat Barker....
.
Border controls are measures used by a country
Country
A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
to monitor or regulate its border
Border
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
s.
The control of the flow of many people, animals and goods across a border may be controlled by government Customs services. Security is enforced by various kinds of Border Guard
Border guard
The border guard, frontier guard, border patrol, border police, or frontier police of a country is a national security agency that performs border control, i.e., enforces the security of the country's national borders....
s and Coast Guard
Coast guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a national organization responsible for various services at sea. However the term implies widely different responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to being a volunteer organization tasked with...
s. Official designations, jurisdictions and subordinations of these agencies vary.
Border controls exist to:
- regulate immigrationImmigrationImmigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
(both legal and illegal) - control the movement of citizens
- (in certain countries as USA and New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
) execute the customsCustomsCustoms is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
functions as to- collect excise tax
- prevent smugglingSmugglingSmuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
of drugs, weapons, endangered speciesEndangered speciesAn endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
and other illegal or hazardous material - control the spread of human or animal diseases (see also quarantineQuarantineQuarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
)
The degree of strictness of border controls depends on the country and the border concerned.
