Translation with deepl:
This is no joke! Two German tourists got a criminal record because they thought Romania had joined the Schengen Area! It all started after the surveillance cameras located near the border line, on the Garbolcz road (Hungary), at the S.P.F. Petea headquarters, around 17.40, issued an alert and transmitted images of two people riding their bicycles from Romania to Hungary, according to PresaSM information.
The images transmitted by the surveillance cameras showed the two people riding around the concrete obstacle and the barrier on the road, illegally crossing the border from Romania into Hungary. The intervention team of S.P.F. Petea was alerted and went to the scene, but the two persons could not be identified and detained.
At the same time, the Hungarian border authorities were informed and sent a team to the area, thus managing to apprehend the two persons. During the border meeting that took place at the S.P.F. Petea headquarters, in order to jointly investigate the border event, the Hungarian border authorities informed that the two persons are German citizens.
According to PresaSM data, in front of the Hungarian authorities, the persons in question declared that they were on holiday and were travelling on bicycles guided by the GPS application of their mobile phones. This is how they arrived in the town of Petea, where the app showed them that there was a border crossing point, as they intended to cross the border from Romania into Hungary. Being used to travelling freely through Europe, without customs controls between countries, they did not know that they could not cross the border there.
I’m curious how they got into Romania in the first place. Did they not notice the border on their way there either?
Why would there be an issue getting into Romania? The article doesnt mention if they were tourists staying in Romania or tourists staying in Hungary, but nevertheless if I would be at a border and a border guard asks for my ID I would just show it to them, especially at the airport. But if I am on a bike-ride and saw a border like this, within the EU, I would think nothing of it and go around it. I would never dream that inside of the EU crossing an unmanned border would be an issue
Because Romania is in the EU but it is not in Schengen, so you have to show your ID at the border EVERY TIME you enter/exit the country, same with Bulgaria.
If they would have crossed from Hungary to Austria, it would be no problem since both countries are in Schengen and no ID is necessary.
For this whole drama, the tourists can thank the Austrian gov since they vetoed Romania’s entry into Schengen last year even tho they fulfill all the requirements to do so.
Yeah I understand what the problem is, that’s not what I meant. What I meant is that as a tourist in an inside-EU-country I would not know that this is the case
I would also not conclude that I’m outside of the Schengen region when I have to show my ID at the border. It’s really not unusual to have border-police check your ID inside the Schengen region, in fact its done quite a lot in some areas (in Germany for example when crossing from Austria to Bavaria). So I can totally understand why they just biked around it and didnt think further of it.
So they probably got into Romania like everyone else, by showing their ID at the Airport, but they didnt conclude from this that they are outside of the Schengen region.
It might be that English is not my first language but what I understand from your comment is that tourists should be ok for not knowing the laws when travelling between EU countries?
It’s true, many people from the west don’t think about Schengen, they take it for granted but businesses and to some extent normal people from Romania/Bulgaria suffer from not being in Schengen and nobody seems to slap Austria for this current situation.
What I meant is that as a tourist in an inside-EU-country I would not know that this is the case
