East German border guards

The border 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. In different states, these forces have different official names, subordinations and jurisdiction.

[edit] Tasks

Chinese border guards' booth on the sea coast in Zhuhai, Guangdong

Typical tasks of a Border Guard are:

• Controlling and guarding a nation's border;
• Controlling border crossing persons, vehicles, and travel documents;
• Preventing illegal border crossing of persons, vehicles, cargoes and other goods;
• Controling transportation of prohibited and limited items (e.g. weapons, ammunition, toxic substances) over the national border;
• Supervising and controlling the observation of foreigner residence regulations, visa regime;
• Preventing the movement of goods and other articles over national borders, bypassing the customs control;
• Investigating cases related to offenses against the national border.

The Border Guard may also perform delegated customs and immigration control duties.

[edit] Border guards by country

[edit] Egypt

Egyptian Border Guard under the control of the Central Security Forces|Ministry of Defense]]. The Border Guard is a lightly armed paramilitary unit of about 25,000 personnel, mostly Bedouins, 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.

[edit] India

The Border Security Force (BSF) is a border patrol agency of the Government of India. Established on December 1, 1965, it is a component of the paramilitary forces of India (PMF) and its primary role is to guard India's international borders during peacetime and also prevent transnational crime. Like most paramilitary units of India, the BSF is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is one of the many law enforcement agencies of India.

[edit] Israel

The Israeli border guard service is known as the Israel Border Police. it is a part of the Israel Police and it was founded as being part of the frontier corps before it became the Border Police. While its main duty is protecting the borders of Israel, it has also been deployed to be used in helping the Israeli military (IDF) in some conflicts such as the Six Day War.^[1][2] A scandal that troubled the Israeli Border Police in 1956 was the Kafr Qasim massacre, where several Palestinian Arabs were killed by Israel Border Police.^[3]

[edit] Italy

In Italy the border police service is covered by the Guardia di Finanza, a branch of the Italian Army under the command of the Finance Minister; mostly, the GdF (or Fiamme Gialle) fight against smuggling, illegal drug trafficking, tax evasion and other financial crimes. Also, many border posts are staffed by Carabinieri.

[edit] Russia

The Border Guard Service of Russia is currently (since 2003) an agency of the Federal Security Service. The agency considers itself a direct successor of the Soviet border troops, and regularly celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the latter (May 28, 1918).^[4]. This annual event, known as the Border Guards Day is celebrated every year by the guards in active service as well as former servicemen in Moscow and throughout the country.^[4].

[edit] United States

In the United States, the primary border police agency is the United States Border Patrol. It has a force of 19,400 agents and is an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. The Border Patrol's main duty is to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act.

[edit] United Kingdom

Border guard services are provided by the UK Border Agency. The UKBA is responsible for passport checks and customs enforcement at ports of entry into the UK.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Border guards

• List of national border guard agencies
• Coast Guard