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Apparently his passport was confiscated[1] so he wouldn’t have been able to do so legally, nor return home even if he did manage to get on a ship. And if you w

Apparently his passport was confiscated[1] so he wouldn’t have been able to do so legally, nor return home even if he did manage to get on a ship. And if you work in international shipping it’s not very good for your career to be blacklisted from Egypt. [1] https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/chief-mate-stranded-on-abandoned-freighter-for-four-years https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/chief-mate-strand...

akudha 6y ago
He was on a ship, alone, with no power/sanitation etc. How is this not inhumane and cruel? I can understand confiscating someone's passport if that person is a criminal, but this? This is like Saudi Arabia taking the passports of its laborers. It is insane that things like this happen, in 2021
crazygringo 6y ago
I'm curious, if he did manage to get on a ship surely he'd be able to return home to Syria on a ship bound there? I mean, if you're an American citizen heading home and you lose your passport on the walkway to board your plane in France... it's not like America's going to prevent you from entering, right? Surely it's gonna take some time to verify who you are and fix the situation. But it's not like you're forever banned from your own country. Leaving Egypt might have been too difficult logistically to pull off, but once he had I don't see any legal difficulty returning home.
- nicklecompte 5y ago
  According to US law (and I am assuming Syrian law) that is true...assuming the government is stable and the country doesn't have a devastating stalemated civil war. Getting into Syria with a legal passport is difficult enough, and Syrian border officials would have good reason to suspect that he was a foreigner. He would likely be thrown on a plane to Cairo and told to figure it out at the Syrian embassy. Although now that I write it out maybe this wouldn't have been a terrible option (albeit Kafkaesque and prone to several bureaucratic failures - and it doesn't solve the problem of him "abandoning his post" and breaking Egyptian law). Even so, US authorities do not just take "sorry fellow USicans, I lost my passport" at face value and will likely detain you until you are able to prove you are a citizen, and put you through quite a bit of extra screening and interrogation. Realistically it would be less of an issue for a white person with a bland American accent, since Border Patrol would probably let you call a lawyer or family member to bring a birth certificate. But I am quite sure an El Salvadoran-American who forgot his passport would not be able to enter the US from Mexico without incredible legal difficulty - again to the point where it would be faster and considerably less traumatizing to just go to a consulate and wait a few weeks.

akudha 6y ago

He was on a ship, alone, with no power/sanitation etc. How is this not inhumane and cruel? I can understand confiscating someone's passport if that person is a criminal, but this? This is like Saudi Arabia taking the passports of its laborers. It is insane that things like this happen, in 2021

crazygringo 6y ago

I'm curious, if he did manage to get on a ship surely he'd be able to return home to Syria on a ship bound there? I mean, if you're an American citizen heading home and you lose your passport on the walkway to board your plane in France... it's not like America's going to prevent you from entering, right? Surely it's gonna take some time to verify who you are and fix the situation. But it's not like you're forever banned from your own country. Leaving Egypt might have been too difficult logistically to pull off, but once he had I don't see any legal difficulty returning home.

nicklecompte 5y ago
According to US law (and I am assuming Syrian law) that is true...assuming the government is stable and the country doesn't have a devastating stalemated civil war. Getting into Syria with a legal passport is difficult enough, and Syrian border officials would have good reason to suspect that he was a foreigner. He would likely be thrown on a plane to Cairo and told to figure it out at the Syrian embassy. Although now that I write it out maybe this wouldn't have been a terrible option (albeit Kafkaesque and prone to several bureaucratic failures - and it doesn't solve the problem of him "abandoning his post" and breaking Egyptian law). Even so, US authorities do not just take "sorry fellow USicans, I lost my passport" at face value and will likely detain you until you are able to prove you are a citizen, and put you through quite a bit of extra screening and interrogation. Realistically it would be less of an issue for a white person with a bland American accent, since Border Patrol would probably let you call a lawyer or family member to bring a birth certificate. But I am quite sure an El Salvadoran-American who forgot his passport would not be able to enter the US from Mexico without incredible legal difficulty - again to the point where it would be faster and considerably less traumatizing to just go to a consulate and wait a few weeks.