Why does border control interrogate their own citizens in some countries?

Question

I am from a European background, and I find it normal that foreigners are checked by border control upon entering or exiting a country and may need visa stamps. It is the duty of the officers to protect the country against illegal immigration, among other things. This does not matter, I believe, for citizens, who generally have the right to move freely in and out.

What I have noticed and been told is that, in some countries, the border control will interrogate and stamp their own citizens (beyond just checking that they look like their passport picture). I think two examples of such countries are India and the Philippines. Out of curiosity, what is the rationale for this?

Answer 1

Both India and the Philippines have a huge problem with their citizens going overseas to work and then getting exploited brutally.

To combat this, Indian passports are designated Emigration Check Required (ECR) and Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR). ECR passports are for people considered at risk (basically unskilled labor: have not graduated from secondary school or obtained a skilled work diploma), and ECR passport holders flying to designated ECR countries (mostly in the Middle East) will be checked.

The Philippines have a similar system for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).

Answer 2

In addition to lambshaanxy's answer, more universally speaking, there is the chance of the citizen committing cross-border crimes or violations.

Primarily smuggling comes to mind right now, but I'd wager there are more.

In Europe this threat usually(!) isn't deemed sufficient to enforce border checks on citizens, but occasionally it is. The Czech-German border for example saw occasional pop-up checkpoints, (primarily before Germany legalized weed but even afterward still) and that was/is despite the heightened restrictions on intra-Schengen border controls.

Similarly this questioning can extend to generally checking the passengers' vehicle or baggage. In this case interrogation is usually brief with the suspect itself (the car or suitcase) getting more attention with a physical search but questioning the owner is also used to gauge the likelihood of whether it's worth to perform a thorough search.

This is not exclusively focused on smuggling though, these checks can also target truckers or bus drivers in regards to load securing and other transport-related laws (including labour laws like daily driving limits), emission standards etc.

Answer 3

I cannot talk for all countries, but in the USA and Canada the immigration officer is also in charge of customs. So part of the officer's job is to check whether what the citizen declared is accurate and how it fits the diverse duty allowances. These vary by country, by product, and by time spent abroad (the less time you were abroad, the less the allowance).

Answer 4

There are crimes that are extra-territorial so sometimes customs and immigration will interrogate in order to get information justifying a thorough inspection of their luggage or even a complete search or seizure of electronic devices. They are not above using police-interrogation style tactics on weary travelers.

Smuggling- especially in jurisidictions with high taxes and/or tariffs. If someone is returning from a tax-free or low-tax jurisdiction and has a $40k wristwatch on, but claims to have bought little, they might want to ask questions and see if they appear nervous etc.

Anecdotally, I was recently told by a returning (from ~1 year teaching assignment in Asia) white American teacher that he was interrogated by US officials for something like 1 hour to determine if he'd been "turned", cold-war style.