Border protocols at "Schengen" borders

[peteb]

I've seen it mentioned in this Forum that Germany is checking incoming trains from Poland at Frankfurt am Der Oder thereby causing delays.

I'm currently at Menton and saw police activity at Menton Garavin station yesterday concerning trains entering France from Italy.

What's going on?

Last year I travelled through a good many Schengen borders by train with no visible signs of police activity, except between Slovenia and Hungary (and of course between Hungary and Romania which then wasn't in Schengen).

 

[Chester1]

Its "security theatre". Schengen rules allow checks in some situations for time limited periods but with no border barrier its just for show.

 

[StephenHunter]

What's going on?

Temporary border checks for the Olympics and Paralympics. Among other things.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games organised in France during the summer 2024, which substantially increase the risk to national security, an intensified terrorist threat, the Moscow attack of 22 March 2024 claimed by the Islamic State, constant migratory pressure at the Schengen external borders, significant increase in irregular crossings especially from Türkiye and North Africa, pressure on the reception system; internal borders.

 

[The exile]

(and of course between Hungary and Romania which then wasn't in Schengen).

For the purposes of land border crossings it (and Bulgaria) still isn't. Passport checks (albeit fairly cursory and without stamping UK passports) are still carried out. Objections by Austria, apparently.

 

[Chester1]

For the purposes of land border crossings it (and Bulgaria) still isn't. Passport checks (albeit fairly cursory and without stamping UK passports) are still carried out. Objections by Austria, apparently.

Isn't it being reviewed towards end of year? Bulgaria shot itself in the foot by basically outsourcing a border crossing to an organised crime group. Air and sea border checks being removed sounds like a reasonable interim measure.

 

[Starmill]

It's pretty common for the police to do patrol at any old time. Often they're just there to look pretty but occasionally they're looking for someone specific, or they're checking for drugs. They can request a form of ID from anyone under German law, though not necccesarily a passport. The temporary border inspection isn't really much different. It may be more time consuming though hence risk of a delay.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Random checks from Spain to France are quite common at Hendaye (from Euskotren), Perpignan (for TGVs) and Cerbère. At Perpignan they usually walk through the train with sniffer dogs.

 

[AlbertBeale]

I've had occasional police checks on trains crossing between Ventimiglia and Menton, and also between Switzerland and somewhere a few years back (can't now remember where); also when entering Sweden from Denmark.

 

[700007]

From my experience, Germany has been doing 'casual' ID checks for years on cross border services. The ÖBB service from Salzberg to Munich usually has German police come on at the border and just check for ID but they won't do any stamping or the likes. It's done relatively quickly however.

 

[JRT]

Passports are required going from Germany to Tønder (Danmark), and from Italy to Chiasso (Switzerland), so wasn't too bothered when the revenue inspector asked me for Ausweiß (ID) when travelling from Baden-Wüttemberg to Basel (Switzerland) but it turned out they were checking the names were correct on a Länder ticket!

 

[duesselmartin]

Border police announced border checks on all border points during the European Cup. I don't think it will be that extreme as we simply don't have the staff for it.
This however could delay international trains as Germany forgot that one could do it in a moving train.

 

[The exile]

This however could delay international trains as Germany forgot that one could do it in a moving train.

Only if there is a reasonably long time between the stops either side of the border or the stations are also set up for border checks. Probably ok on IC services - but less easy on stoppers which run on beyond the frontier station.

 

[peteb]

Only if there is a reasonably long time between the stops either side of the border or the stations are also set up for border checks. Probably ok on IC services - but less easy on stoppers which run on beyond the frontier station.

Yes could be tricky on those RE services from Luxembourg or Netherlands.

 

[The exile]

Or eastbound out of Strasbourg.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

UK has reverted to full inspection of liquids and electronics at airports recently equipped with new scanners.
No reason or time limit given.

Passed through Geneva airport yesterday, surprised they didn't have new scanners, so separate scans for liquids/electronics, and belt off.
No checks of any kind between Italy and Switzerland last week, on the Simplon rail border.

 

[WolvertonWorks]

We boarded the Stena line ferry at Harwich evening of 28th May and our bags went through an X-ray machine. Boarding the return ferry at Hook of Holland on Monday 10th June no obvious scanning of our bags, which seemed odd but maybe they are using intelligence to decide if a bag needs checking.

On the trains from Hamburg to Hirtshals on 31st May Danish Border Force joined the train near the border between Germany and Denmark. There was an announcement along the lines of "Border Force are in control the train" but the train set off again soon afterwards. We noticed a couple a few seats ahead of us having their passports checked but that was all the checking we saw.

 

[StephenHunter]

Only if there is a reasonably long time between the stops either side of the border or the stations are also set up for border checks. Probably ok on IC services - but less easy on stoppers which run on beyond the frontier station.

Polish EC/IC trains to Berlin stop at Frankfurt an der Oder in any event.

 

[route101]

I travelled over a few borders recently. Austria to Slovakia and back, no checks on regional train. I did notice someone was checking cars on the road at Kitsee.
Austria to Italy over the Brenner pass. Italian police walked through the train.

 

[185143]

We boarded the Stena line ferry at Harwich evening of 28th May and our bags went through an X-ray machine. Boarding the return ferry at Hook of Holland on Monday 10th June no obvious scanning of our bags, which seemed odd but maybe they are using intelligence to decide if a bag needs checking.

On the trains from Hamburg to Hirtshals on 31st May Danish Border Force joined the train near the border between Germany and Denmark. There was an announcement along the lines of "Border Force are in control the train" but the train set off again soon afterwards. We noticed a couple a few seats ahead of us having their passports checked but that was all the checking we saw.

Same on the Irish side. Holyhead Port has the same airport style X ray machines, which I once walked through holding half a pint of lager. Fishguard have done manual searches, yet at Rosslare and Dublin you don't even get asked for ID let alone get searched.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jun 2024 ==

Back on topic, I was on a Hamburg-Copenhagen DB service about 6 weeks ago and Danish Police boarded for ID checks once across the border. Or that's what we were told, with how quickly the officer that I saw got through the carriage behind my compartment, there's no way she saw many if any IDs.

 

[RT4038]

Back on topic, I was on a Hamburg-Copenhagen DB service about 6 weeks ago and Danish Police boarded for ID checks once across the border. Or that's what we were told, with how quickly the officer that I saw got through the carriage behind my compartment, there's no way she saw many if any IDs.

Racial profiling?

 

[trawscymru27]

I was on the Kalmán Imre sleeper from
Budapest to Stuttgart on Monday night and there was a passport check by German/Austrian (?) police whilst we were stopped at Salzburg at about 4 am.

 

[nwales58]

Racial profiling?

Age profiling in my experience of Freilassing checks by Bavarian (not German federal) border police for several years now.

Elderly like me are just walked past. Young with bags get documents checked. Skin colour might come into it but mainly age.

 

[185143]

Age profiling in my experience of Freilassing checks by Bavarian (not German federal) border police for several years now.

Elderly like me are just walked past. Young with bags get documents checked. Skin colour might come into it but mainly age.

I did wonder both of those things. Given I'm in my 20s and was travelling alone with a reasonable amount of luggage, I was wondering if I might get a bit of questioning.

But no. My passport got a cursory glance at best, and that was only because I'd offered it to the officer as she approached.

Got a bit of questioning at Hoek Van Holland when I got off the ferry, but nothing too detailed. "Why are you here? When/where are you leaving from? Can I see your return ticket? Cool, enjoy!"

 

[eastwestdivide]

Got a bit of questioning at Hoek Van Holland when I got off the ferry, but nothing too detailed. "Why are you here? When/where are you leaving from? Can I see your return ticket? Cool, enjoy!

Coming back through Hoek, “Where have you been?” “Germany” “Escaping the football then?”
edit: sorry, not an intra-Schengen border, but too good to leave out

 

[route101]

Racial profiling?

I was on a EC service which stopped at Brenner last week. The Italian police came through, one officer asked if the Indian family needed checked, he said no.

 

[Krokodil]

Age profiling in my experience of Freilassing checks by Bavarian (not German federal) border police for several years now.

Elderly like me are just walked past. Young with bags get documents checked. Skin colour might come into it but mainly age.

I've been checked twice on sleepers. Once they just asked the nationalities of everyone (me British, the rest were German) before moving on. The other time they looked at everyone's ID. So no age or racial profiling that I could see. Perhaps certain nationalities (rather than races) may have been asked further questions. No mirror check to ensure that no one else was in the compartment, unlike at the Hungarian/Romanian border.

 

[Zamracene749]

Checked by 4 customs guys on the ICE3 from Liege to Koln last week. Although, the train was that late (and also cancelled from Bruxelles where it was supposed to start from) that they may as well have been checking for 1945 war criminals......

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Jun 2024 ==

I've been checked twice on sleepers. Once they just asked the nationalities of everyone (me British, the rest were German) before moving on. The other time they looked at everyone's ID. So no age or racial profiling that I could see. Perhaps certain nationalities (rather than races) may have been asked further questions. No mirror check to ensure that no one else was in the compartment, unlike at the Hungarian/Romanian border.

Valea Lui Mihai a couple of years back on a Debrecen to Satu Mare hauled service. A cursory look by sour faced Hungarian officials at Nyírábrány was followed up by a passport and mirror check by one of the friendliest customs guys in the world on the Romanian side. After a quick scan under the seats with mirrors looking for contraband, he came back and sat for a chat, was genuinely surprised to find a Brit going for a day trip between countries! Same chap on the return journey, sat straight down, only glanced at my passport and shared some jokes and stories for 10 mins whilst they changed loco, as a sign of friendship I gave him a couple of my bottles of beer to take home as it was the end of his shift

​

 

[MattSGB]

German police did a full passport check when I travelled on the NightJet from Vienna to Brussels last Monday, waking everyone to see their documents. They were very thorough, checking for the most recent passport stamp, asking questions about travel dates and intended return date. They seemed particularly interested in British citizens. I assumed they were looking for football hooligans travelling to Euro 24.

 

[Cloud Strife]

One interesting place where I've seen checks was on the train between Gorlitz and Zittau at Krzewicka Zgorzelecka. The Polish Border Guard entered the train and did a very quick visual check of passengers, while the handful of passengers getting on and off the train there were asked for ID.

It's also nothing unusual on certain services, such as on the Berlin-Warszawa/Gdynia Expresses to see border controls carried out between Rzepin and Frankfurt (Oder).

 

[Ian99]

I remember years back the Thello sleeper train I was on from Milan to Paris had a check by Swiss Police at the border.

They found a man hiding in the luggage area within the compartment (the bit over the corridor) that none of us 6 people in the compartment had seen.