Border checkpoint

Sultan Iskandar Building

Woodlands Checkpoint

The Sultan Iskandar Building (Malaysia) and Woodlands Checkpoint (Singapore) on the Malaysia–Singapore border handles the busiest international land border crossing in the world, with 350,000 travellers daily.^[1][2]

A border checkpoint is a place, generally between two countries, where travelers or goods are inspected. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders often have a limited number of checkpoints where they can be crossed without legal sanctions. Arrangements or treaties may be formed to allow or mandate less restrained crossings (e.g. the Schengen Agreement). Land border checkpoints (land ports of entry) can be contrasted with the customs and immigration facilities at seaports, international airports, and other ports of entry.

Checkpoints generally serve two purposes:

• To prevent entrance of individuals who are either undesirable (e.g. criminals or others who pose threats) or simply unauthorized to enter.
• To prevent entrance of goods that are illegal or subject to restriction, or to collect tariffs.

Checkpoints are usually staffed by a uniformed service (sometimes referred to as customs service or border patrol agents).

In some countries (e.g. China) there are border checkpoints for both those entering and those exiting the country, while in others (e.g. U.S. and Canada), there are border checkpoints only when entering the country. (There are also United States Border Patrol interior checkpoints.)

Definitions in European Union (Schengen) law[]

Italian-Swiss border post – since Switzerland joined the Schengen Area in 2009, this checkpoint is solely for customs formalities

The Schengen Borders Code, which forms part of the law of the European Union, defines some terms as follows (particularities with respect to the EU are left out, in order to emphasize general usability of those definitions):^[3]

• "Border crossing point" means any crossing point authorized by the competent authorities for the crossing of external borders (Article 2 sec. 8 of the Schengen Borders Code);
• "Border control" means the activity carried out at a border, [...] in response exclusively to an intention to cross or the act of crossing that border, regardless of any other consideration, consisting of border checks and border surveillance (Article 2 sec. 9 of the Schengen Borders Code);
• "Border checks" means the checks carried out at border crossing points, to ensure that persons, including their means of transport and the objects in their possession, may be authorised to enter the territory [...] or authorised to leave it (Article 2 sec. 10 of the Schengen Borders Code);
• "Border surveillance" means the surveillance of borders between border crossing points and the surveillance of border crossing points outside the fixed opening hours, in order to prevent persons from circumventing border checks (Article 2 sec. 10 of the Schengen Borders Code).
• "Second line check" means a further check which may be carried out in a special location away from the location at which all persons are checked (first line)

These definitions mean that a place where a road crosses an internal Schengen border is legally not a "border crossing point".

Busiest checkpoints in the world[]

Land[]

This is a list of the busiest land border checkpoints in the world, handling more than 35 million travelers in both directions annually. These travelers (or individual crossings) comprise pedestrians, drivers and vehicle passengers. International border checkpoints are in green.

Notes:

• As the United States does not have border checkpoints for outgoing traffic, incoming traffic figures are doubled to give a fair comparison. The port of entry is paired with the respective Mexican port of entry. See detailed notes under reference column below.
• Explanation on the exclusion of El Paso Port of Entry from the list.^[4]

Rank	Border checkpoints				Annual Travelers	Reference
1	Gongbei Port			Posto Fronteiriço das Portas do Cerco	134,000,000	[5] (2018).
2	Sultan Iskandar Building			Woodlands Checkpoint	127,750,000	[2] (2012). Based on reported daily average.
3	Luohu Port			Lo Wu Control Point	81,707,959	[6] (2017).
4	Puerto Fronterizo El Chaparral			San Ysidro Port of Entry	69,300,000	[7] (2018). See note.[8]
5	Futian Port			Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point	59,464,480	[6] (2017).
6	Shenzhen Bay Port			Shenzhen Bay Control Point	45,118,797	[6] (2017).
7	Huanggang Port			Lok Ma Chau Control Point	37,059,848	[6] (2017).
8	Puerto Fronterizo Mesa de Otay			Otay Mesa Port of Entry	35,400,000	[7] (2018). See note.[9]

Air[]

This is a list of the busiest airports in the world, by international passenger traffic, as of 2018. Airports serving international passengers are effectively checkpoints, and have the proper customs, immigration and quarantine facilities. Airports Council International's (January–December) preliminary figures are as follows.^[10]

Rank	Airport		Annual Passengers
1	Dubai International Airport		88,885,367
2	London Heathrow Airport		75,306,939
3	Hong Kong International Airport		74,360,976
4	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol		70,956,258
5	Seoul Incheon International Airport		67,676,147
6	Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport		66,383,494
7	Singapore Changi Airport		64,890,000
8	Frankfurt Airport		61,774,663
9	Suvarnabhumi Airport		50,868,846
10	Atatürk International Airport		48,978,770

Sea[]

This is a list of the busiest seaports in the world, with proper customs, immigration and quarantine facilities to be deemed as maritime checkpoints. Although figures simply represent total passenger traffic, most (if not, all) of the passengers served at these ports are bound for other countries and have to pass through checkpoint (i.e. the port is not a domestic one). This list only includes ports that handle more than 4 million passengers annually.

Note:

• The four passenger ports in China, Hong Kong and Macau in this list operate services to and from each other. These passenger ports are effectively checkpoints, as they have the proper customs, immigration and quarantine facilities.

Rank	Port		Annual Passengers	Reference
1	Taipa Ferry Terminal		24,000,000	[11] (2017). Based on five-year total.
2	Hong Kong–Macau Ferry Terminal		17,317,037	[6] (2017).
3	Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal		15,000,000	[12] (2013).
4	Port of Helsinki		12,300,000	[13] (2017).
5	Port of Dover		11,700,000	[14] (2017).
6	Hong Kong-China Ferry Terminal		7,074,940	[6] (2017).
7	PortMiami		4,800,000	[15] (2017).
8	Port Canaveral		4,500,000	[16] (2016).

Gallery[]

• 

  United States–Mexico border checkpoint at Nogales, Arizona.

• 

  The Vietnam–Cambodia border west of Tây Ninh Province, from the Vietnamese side.

• 

  An African road border entering Niger from Benin at Gaya

• 

  Old border post on the France–Spain border (both countries now part of the Schengen Area)

• 

  The Pont Saint-Ludovic / Ponte San Ludovico border checkpoint between Menton, France, and Ventimiglia, Italy (both countries are part of the Schengen Area)

• 

  Looking into Austria from Liechtenstein, with a joint border station. Since Liechtenstein joined the Schengen Area in 2011, this border station is for customs formalities only.

• 

  Nekhoteevka customs on the Russia–Ukraine border.

• 

  Border checkpoint on the Slovenia–Croatia border.

• 

  The former checkpoint in Johor Bahru, Malaysia at the Johor–Singapore Causeway. It was replaced by the much larger Sultan Iskandar Building 1 km further inland in 2008.

• 

  Gongbei Port on the mainland side of the Zhuhai–Macau border.

• 

  Posto Fronteiriço das Portas do Cerco on the Macanese side of the Zhuhai–Macau border.

• 

  The former customs and immigration station along the Canada–United States border at Noyes, Minnesota, built in 1931, one of the earliest purpose-built border stations in the United States and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Border crossings.

• Alcabala
• Border
• Border control
• Border outpost
• Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall
• Customs
• Frontier Closed Area is the border area in Hong Kong with China
• Garitas in Mexico
• Israeli checkpoint
• Schengen Agreement
• The United States–Mexico border and Canada–United States border
• List of Canada–United States border crossings
• List of Mexico–United States border crossings

References[]