A green border is a weakly protected section of the national

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

. The term ''green border'' comes from the area covered with vegetation: green borders are usually forests, thickets and meadows, often with varied

terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

. The act of (illegal) crossing to the green border is associated with the phenomenon of smuggling goods and persons of a criminal nature, but it has sometimes also been politically motivated. Green borders are and have been crossed by participants of the political activists illegally operating in their countries to contact with foreign collaborators, allies, emigres and the like, or to emigrate and seek refuge.

Green border in Schengen zone

Green borders exist within the European Union as the state borders internal to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, crossed by tourists outside the area of former border crossings. After the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

became effective, crossing borders between countries where the agreement applies is allowed at every section of the border. Article 22 of the Schengen Borders Code mentions this. Only persons without EU citizenship who do not have a visa to enter the whole territory are excluded from this regulation.

References

External links

{{Commonscatinline International border crossings Borders