A border guard of a country is a national security agency that ensures border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Germany, Italy or Ukraine) and rescue service duties.
Name and uniform In different countries, names of particular border guard services vary significantly. The service may be called "police", "guard", "troops" or "sentinel" and the name would refer to the nation's official term for the state border - whether it is "frontier" or "border".
Most border guards of the world use dark green-colored elements on their uniform, insignia or flags.
Tasks
Peacetime duties
Typical tasks of a border guard are: Controlling and guarding a nation's borders and protecting national borders; Controlling border crossing persons, vehicles, and travel documents; Preventing illegal border crossing of persons, vehicles, cargoes and other goods; Controlling transportation of prohibited and limited items (e.g. weapons, ammunition, toxic substances, narcotics) over the national border; Supervising and controlling the observation of foreigner residence regulations, visa regime; Preventing the illegal movement of goods and other art across the nation's borders, bypassing customs control; Investigating cases related to offenses against the national border. Systematic and permanent observation of the state border space, from land, sea or air, by visual, electronic or other modern means of surveillance and protection, with the purpose of detecting, alerting and / or preventing possible violations in the international limit; It also involves verification and reporting on the maintenance and conservation of border markers. Prevent criminals, escapees from prisons or fugitives from the internal justice of the country evade and flee to other nations to evade the action of national justice Exchange all types of information and cooperate with other national agencies and counterparts in other countries, as well as with international organizations specializing in migration, border control, customs control, sanitary control, phytosanitary control and security to assist in the implementation of actions against the illicit trafficking of migrants, trafficking in persons, crimes related to transnational organized crime, terrorism, illegal trafficking in arms and explosives, corruption, drug trafficking and against the diversion, for illegal purposes, of dual-use goods and other activities related Immigration control duties. The border guard may also perform customs.
Wartime duties During wartime more militarized border guard services may be transferred to be under the control of a country's armed forces branches, if it is not so already.
Border guards by country
Australia
The Australian Border Force (ABF), is a part of the Department of Home Affairs, responsible for offshore and onshore border control enforcement, investigations, compliance and detention operations in Australia. The Force was established on 1 July 2015 merging the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service with the immigration detention and compliance functions of the then Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
The ABF is a law enforcement agency operating under the Australian Border Force Act 2015 with broadened legislative powers including the introduction of sworn officers. A new uniform was introduced and following the transition there was increase in the number of officers authorised to carry firearms.
Bangladesh
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is a paramilitary border security and anti-smuggling force under the Ministry of Home Affairs of Bangladesh. BGB can trace back its origin to the establishment of the Ramgarh Local Battalion in 1795. This force is armed and although its primary duty is to protect the border, during national emergencies it can also be called upon to aid the government.
Canada
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is a law enforcement agency of the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. Created in 2003, it amalgamated the enforcement activities performed by three separate government entities (Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency). Traditionally unarmed, the arming of Border Services Officers, Investigators, and Inland Enforcement Officers began in 2007 and was completed in 2016. Officers are found at entry points to Canada (airports, marine entry points, and land border crossing points with the United States).
Czech Republic Alien Police Service is a highly specialized unit of the Police of the Czech Republic, which carries out functions relating to the detection of illegal migration, application of punitive measures against foreigners staying in the Czech Republic in violation of the law no. 326/1999 Coll. On the residence of foreigners in the Czech Republic and amending certain laws, as amended laws, the tasks arising from international agreements and directly applicable European Community legislation and solving the crimes committed in connection with the crossing of the state border and cross-border crime. The Alien Police Service was established by the Ministry of the Interior no. 67/2008 establishing units of the Police of the Czech Republic nationwide.
Alien Police of the Czech Republic is divided into:
Alien Police Service Directorate - is within the specified range managing, methodological and control department with jurisdiction throughout the Czech Republic and is directly subordinate to the Police Presidium of the Czech Republic
Alien Police Unions in the regional directorates of individual regions Department of residence controls, search and escort Department of residence matters Department documents and specialized activities Documentation Department Department of International Relations (only in border areas)
Egypt The Border Guard Corps is under the control of the Ministry of Defence. The Border Guard is a lightly armed paramilitary unit of about 25,000 personnel, responsible for border surveillance, general peacekeeping, drug interdiction, and prevention of smuggling. During the late 1980s, the force was equipped with remote sensors, night-vision binoculars, communications vehicles, and high-speed motorboats.
Finland The Finnish Border Guard (; ), including the coast guard, is the agency responsible for border control related to persons, including passport control and border patrol. The Border Guard is a paramilitary organization, subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior in administrative issues and to the President of the Republic in issues pertaining to the president's authority as Commander-in-Chief (e.g. officer promotions). The Finland-Russia border is a controlled border, routinely patrolled and protected by a border zone enforced by the Border Guard. Borders to Norway and Sweden are open borders, but the Border Guard maintains personnel in the area owing to its search and rescue (SAR) duties. There are two coast guard districts for patrolling maritime borders. The Border Guard has also detachments posted at ports and airports. In peacetime, the Border Guard trains special forces and light infantry and can be incorporated fully or in part into the Finnish Defence Forces when required by defence readiness. The Border Guard has police and investigative powers in immigration matters and can independently investigate immigration violations. The Border Guard has search and rescue (SAR) duties, both maritime and inland. The Guard operates SAR helicopters that are often used in inland SAR, in assistance of a local fire and rescue department or other authorities. The Border Guard shares border control duties with Finnish Customs, which inspects arriving goods, and the Finnish Police, which enforces immigration decisions such as removal.
France
The French Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects, Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes is a law enforcement civilian agency responsible for levying indirect taxes, preventing smuggling, surveilling borders and investigating counterfeit money. The agency acts as a coast guard, border guard, sea rescue organisation and a customs service. Though it is a civilian service, agents are armed. In France, it is commonly known as "les douanes", which means customs ("la douane" is a border checkpoint). Agents are referred to as "douaniers", which means customs officers. In the French legal standards, the prosecution carries the burden of proof since the defendant is presumed innocent; but in customs procedures, the defendant carries the burden of proof.
French Border Police, Police aux frontières or PAF (former Police de l'air et des frontières), also have to monitor the borders and conduct checks in some parts.
Germany
In Germany, the Federal Police (Bundespolizei), a civilian agency subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, is - besides other duties - responsible for border control tasks. Until 2005, the Federal Police was called Federal Border Guard, and originally was a paramilitary organisation having mandatory service in the 1970s, but had its military rank structure changed into a civilian one in the 1970s and lost its wartime combatant status in the 1990s.
State Border Guard The German state of Bavaria reestablished its State Border Police in the aftermath of the European migrant crisis in 2018 again, after it was merged into the Bavarian State Police in 1998 because of the Schengen Agreement.
Ghana In October 1964, the Border Guard Unit was formed as a police unit led by an assistant commissioner of police. The BGU acted as customs agents examining passengers and baggage aboard ships and aircraft.The Security Act (Act 202) 1963, Ghana.The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (Management) Law 1993, PNDCL 330. It forms part of the Ghana Revenue Authority. The primary operation of BGU is the detection and apprehension of illegal aliens as well as smugglers of aliens at or near the land borders.
Hong Kong Border guards in Hong Kong consists of two civilian agencies: Customs and Excise officers handling customs duties at ports, airports and land crossing. Immigration officers handle people entering ports, airport (1) and land crossings (6) with mainland China.
Hong Kong Police Force officers patrol the border with mainland China, but they are not border guards at entry points. Prior to 1995, this role was performed by British Army units stationed in Hong Kong.
Various police checkpoint booths (boundary crossing) are found along roads and are in the outside Closed Areas. Staffed by uniformed Hong Kong Police officers, vehicle occupants must present papers and/or permits in order to proceed to the border. These officers act as informal border guards, which do not exist in Hong Kong as there is no international boundary with mainland China.
All three border agencies are responsibilities of the Security Bureau.
Hungary
In Hungary, border control has belonged to the Hungarian Police (Rendőrség) since 2007. There is no different organization for this role. Policemen serving on the border have the very same uniform as those inside the country. Previously the Frontier Guard or Border Guard was a separate agency.
Kyrgyzstan
The Border Guard Service of the State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic are responsible for the border security of Kyrgyzstan. The Border Guard Service is commanded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but are officially part of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic. They had many disagreements with the Border Troops of the State Security Service of Uzbekistan and had a military drill with China in August 2013.
India