one station and the full integration of processes is promoted. Juxtaposed facilities allow economies of scale, better cooperation, simplified formalities, improved control over fraud, and informal data and intelligence exchanges. Moreover, the increasingly apparent economic consequences of long border waiting times argue for joint infrastructure and operations. Well established in western countries for 60 years, and successfully tested in some Central and Eastern European countries before transition, juxtaposed stations have evolved over time. They started as divided stations straddling the border, with each country remaining on its own side. Then they evolved into single stations more on one country’s territory. Later still, they embraced the operational integration of border law enforcement agencies. One example is the Schengen Joint Police Stations. Another is the police and customs cooperation centers, or joint Schengen patrols, between the customs administrations and police forces of adjacent countries at some internal borders within the European Union (box 4.14). Such integration, though probably far in the future for many countries, indicates the possibility and efficiency of cross border integration and coordination. It also reveals the conditions necessary for effective cooperation. Conditions necessary for juxtaposed or coordinated border operations
Box 4.14
Binational or international agreement on juxtaposed border facilities. Most international agreements signed now reflect an emerging international standard for juxtaposed border facilities, usually consisting of: • Placement in the immediate vicinity of the borderline whenever possible. • Symmetrical arrangement, with one way facilities in each country. • All checks in the destination country. • A so called common control area—where officials of both countries carry out their checks— complemented by exclusive control areas for each country. This template, which has the advantage of simplicity, establishes an apparently novel joint control arrangement. Yet it can have limitations. First, the geography—or the existing infrastructure, when this is to be upgraded—may not be suitable. An example
4 Borders, their design, and their operation
The conditions for success are simple, but experience shows that they are sometimes difficult to fulfill. The main problem at juxtaposed stations is how to detect frauds, arrest offenders, and prosecute cases without violating either country’s laws.
Understanding what a juxtaposed station means. In some cases heads of state or government become overenthusiastic about a joint station, thinking it will solve all border issues at a particularly difficult crossing, so they require queues to be drastically reduced by a deadline.31 In other cases, when opening a juxtaposed facility is meant to demonstrate friendship between two countries, politics and ribbon cutting can matter more than operations. If ministers and heads of state know little about interagency protocols and international operating procedures, still they should be aware of the strong commitment implicit in opening juxtaposed border stations—not only to an architectural design, but also to clarified procedures and streamlined laws and systems of organization.
Police and customs cooperation centers (Schengen patrols)
Police and customs cooperation centers bring together officials from two adjacent countries who have access to their agencies’ databases and intelligence networks. Each official is free to share or not share sensitive or confidential data. Centers collect and exchange intelligence, deal with asylum seekers, establish cross border cooperation against illegal immigration (notably through the management of denial of admission procedures and expulsions of illegal aliens), and coordinate the fight against smuggling (drugs in particular). The centers also coordinate joint surveillance in the border area. Joint patrols consist of officials of both countries whose area of operation is limited to a certain distance from both sides of the border. Law enforcement officials of each country may conduct surveillance and hot pursuit in the opposite country, and may in some cases request a suspect’s arrest by its national authorities. Required to operate in uniform, the officials are allowed to carry weapons in the opposite country but to use them only for self defense.
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