Trapped in Another Nation

An enclave is a territory totally surrounded by a single foreign country. When viewed from the perspective of the home country, it is an exclave. These geographical orphans create profound administrative friction.

Point Roberts: America's Geographic Typo

Located on the southernmost tip of the Tsawwassen Peninsula, Point Roberts, Washington, is an American town reachable by land only by driving through British Columbia, Canada. Created by an oversight during the drafting of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, which set the border at the 49th parallel, this tiny community faces unique hurdles.

Children in Point Roberts must cross an international border four times a day just to attend high school in Blaine, Washington. During border closures, the town becomes virtually economically stranded, surviving only via emergency ferries.

The Vennbahn Railway

In Europe, the Vennbahn is a former railway line that was ceded to Belgium after World War I. However, the track itself runs through Germany. This created six small exclaves of Germany that are entirely surrounded by Belgian territory—specifically, the width of a single railway track creates an international barrier.

The Cooch Behar Crisis (Resolved)

Until 2015, the India-Bangladesh border contained the world's most complex enclave situation. There were 106 Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh and 92 Bangladeshi enclaves inside India. Most staggeringly, there was Dahala Khagrabari—an Indian piece of land, inside a Bangladeshi enclave, inside an Indian enclave, inside Bangladesh. It was the world's only third-order enclave, a bureaucratic nightmare that left residents without state services, electricity, or legal identity until a massive land swap resolved it.