Let’s take Cuba for example. What I’ve heard is that, if the refugees make it to shore, they’re basicaly home free (in a manner of speaking) and can stay here. If the Coast Guard catches them out in the water, they’re sent back. Are you saying that those refugees caught before reaching US shores can apply for asylum?
Cuba is a unique case (isn’t it always?). But worth a go, I suppose.
Under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, any Cubans who set foot on US soil are basically home free and allowed to apply for permanent legal residency after a year and a day. While this policy was intended to stick it to Castro and recognize the barbarism of his regime, it became a pain during episodes like the Mariel Boatlift, when in 1980 over 125,000 Cubans crossed climbed onto anything that would float to get to America after Castro temporarily lifted exit restrictions. Interestingly, this likely contributed to Bill Clinton’s defeat for his initial re-election bid as governor of Arkansas, when he supported the Carter Administration’s decision to house some of the refugees in Arkansas and they subsequently rioted and 300 broke loose.
Fast forward to the mid-nineties. With a wink and a nod, Castro has again allowed mass migrations of Cubans across the straight of Florida. The Clinton administration works out an accord with Cuba that the US would return to Cuba anyone attempting illegally to enter the country who didn’t actually reach U.S. soil, and Cuba would repatriate, but not persecute, those who fled. Since one of the requirements for asylum is a credible fear of persecution . . . voila, instant repatriation!
You can, but you run the risk of being stopped at Passport Control in the Paris airport and sent back before you’ve ever really set foot in the country. A return ticket is one of the first things immigration authorities will ask for as proof that you aren’t planning to stay.
Even if you get through, though, it’s still not a good idea because when you get deported from a country you may be put on a blacklist and barred permanently from that country. Since France is a member of the Schengen region (the EU countries minus the UK and Ireland and I think minus the new accession states too), which has no internal border controls, they most likely would give your details to all the other Schengen countries and then you’d be fucked for getting into most of Western Europe.
At this point some Doper will probably post “my friend did blah blah blah and still manages to go back every year”, but this is the law, and you violate it at your own risk.