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Comment by mschuster91 | Hacker News Reader

> I don't understand what's so hard simply shipping the immigrants back on a big ship once every 2-3 months.

Because as a result of the events from 1933-1945, everyone has the individual right to claim asylum in Europe. Despite the far-right working hard to abolish that, we won't.

Besides, for countries like Syria there's a deportation ban in place by the European court system.

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Serious question:

As an American, can I go vacation in Europe and then toss my documents and claim I'm seeking asylum with a succesful outcome of being granted permanent residency and the ability to work?

If you meet the criteria then yes you could - the requirements are roughly the same as seeking asylum in the USA.

Depends on if are you fleeing a civil war that Europe has been pouring weapons into, or something else of the same sort.

Unlikely to be successful.

> The right to asylum is guaranteed by Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Article 19 prohibits collective expulsions and protects individuals from being removed, expelled or extradited to a state where there is a serious risk of death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/democracy...

Successful? No

Also, you don't need to "toss [your] documents", I'm not sure why you think that's required to initiate an asylum process lol

Someone versed in EU law can chime in, but I imagine that being literally undocumented would only make the process harder (though it would be abundantly clear that you're an American anyways)

Indeed, they will need to check your story, and that's a whole lot easier when they know your identity (otherwise they have to verify your identity in other ways, which will certainly take more time...).

If you have a legitimate claim (let's say, a criminal gang put a bounty on you - and this claim is documented) it could work

No need to toss your documents

As an American, you'd be far, far, far, far, far, far more likely to succeed in migrating by following one of the European countries' legal migration paths (each country has its own policies). Most European countries are very interested in allowing migration of skilled workers, and in several countries, being a fluent English speaker is a bonus.

On the other hand, it might be technically possible for you to meet one of these country's criteria for "refugee", "displaced person", "asylum seeker", etc. but it is _remarkably_ unlikely.

As an American your chances are near zero.

Also, they wil check your identity, so using a false name is almost certainly going to be a reason to be denied asylum.

Then why people with asylum rejected are not sent back? Most of the immigrants are economic migrants yet I have not seen any massive deportation but we can see massive immigration every year(i.e big ships with "rescued" migrants). Most of them don't even bother to apply for asylum.

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