Americans Surprised That Borders Apply to Them, Too

Following up on the last post, three unfortunate American Youts recently got the cold shoulder that the U.S. often extends to would-be travelers, as their planned backpacking trip to Europe was thwarted by zealous border officials in Ireland.

According to the men, immigration officials said they couldn't enter Ireland because they lacked an address where they planned to stay in Dublin and bank statements to prove they could afford to travel.

"If they want us to go to their country, they shouldn't do this," said Colin Zwirko, 21, who sold his Volkswagen to help pay for the trip. "They should step up and apologize or help."

It tends to come as a shock to most Americans to be told they can't travel somewhere they want to go.  But this is the normal state of affairs for most people in the world.

The friends, who all quit their jobs to make the trip, said they don't understand why immigration officials forced them to return to the U.S. They didn't have printed financial statements, as the agents requested, but they told the agents they had thousands of dollars in their bank accounts. Zwirko said he offered to show them his bank balance online, but they refused to look at it.

The thought of a U.S. immigration official "looking something up" online in lieu of required paper documentation is bizarre.

The friends said they probably need to get reimbursed for the return flight in order to restart their trip.

I'll give you one guess whether the U.S. government reimburses flight expenses to travelers to whom it denies entry.

Every year, young Americans overstay visas, work without permission, and otherwise flout the immigration laws of their host countries.

It looks like that was what these backpackers had planned:

The three friends from high school landed last Friday in Dublin to begin a yearlong backpacking trip across Western Europe.

Both Ireland and the EU permit U.S. citizens to enter without a visa for no more than 90 days.  Perhaps the travelers had planned to renew their visas in accordance with the laws of the EU.  Given the minimal effort they put into learning about Ireland's visa laws, I doubt it.

As a former backpacker myself, I'm not pleased with Ireland's decision to mimic the counterproductive border policy we now take for granted in the U.S.  And I feel sorry for these three young dudes.  Young dudes, it sucks that your Europe trip got scuppered by some vengeful bureaucrat.

I don't support Ireland's and the EU's discriminatory visa laws (Africans, Asians, and Caribbeans not welcome), just as I oppose them in the U.S.  Those laws are carefully designed to maintain wealth disparities between the rich world and the developing world.  Like a semipermeable membrane, they keep poor people out while letting rich people in.

But sometimes these laws keep the "wrong" people out, and then hometown newspapers write angry articles.  It often comes as a surprise to Americans abroad to find themselves on the wrong side of stupid laws stupidly applied.  One hopes it would make them more likely to rexamine immigration policies back home.

(Via BIB)