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Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

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Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#21

Post by someguy101010 »

orange3xchicken wrote: post #17
someguy101010 wrote: post #11

Couple of thoughts come to mind. - I think the closest thing to this would be something like the silkroad or whatever it's modern incantation is. - I think solving a problem like this would be more about branding and abuse than technical. Abuse will be a hard since a platform like this will have to be censorship resistant by design. - why do I want to hire a refugee in the conditions that you describe? I'm running a…

I think emulating existing darknet market infrastructure makes sense to address a couple of the issues you mentioned- like public reviews & messaging for employment + moderation & escrow/multisig for transactions. + your third point, I think another issue is basically verification: what's stopping cheap, non-refugee laborers from scooping job postings from refugees? I don't think it would be possible to verify the re…

> what's stopping cheap, non-refugee laborers from scooping job postings from refugees? I don't think it would be possible to verify the refugee status of someone without leaking identifying info.

I think problem is solved by the fact if you aren't a refugee you are probably looking for work through normal channels. A job board like this is for people who are either doing something illegal (as a symptom of being a gov resistant platform), or who have no other options due to circumstances.

Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#23

Post by codegeek »

If you are truly hiding and fearful for your life, remote work is not on your mind. Even if you get paid in BTC, what good will it do ? The only goal is to get out of there. Period. yes you need to feed yourself while trying to stay safe but remote work with BTC payment is not the solution for that.

Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#24

Post by good8675309 »

codegeek wrote: post #23

If you are truly hiding and fearful for your life, remote work is not on your mind. Even if you get paid in BTC, what good will it do ? The only goal is to get out of there. Period. yes you need to feed yourself while trying to stay safe but remote work with BTC payment is not the solution for that.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to "Get out of there" and basically impossible for many asylum seekers who've been forgotten about. Hiding out for decades. When getting out fails you need a backup and with the global digital market it should totally be possible to find remote work without ID. Also, I agree that cash over crypto is ideal but it's a situation without many options so you'd likely have to make crypto work.

Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#25

Post by jimkri »

So what do you mean by "Verify identity"? If someone doesn't have an address but has identification to prove they are a certain age there are work arounds to hiring them and paying them as an Independent contractor in whatever country they are in.

I'm not sure how legal it is, and you would be subject to some risk. But I know there are a ton of companies working with "VAs" Virtual assistances that are based out of the Philipense and Pakistan where they help with Lead Generation and other online work. They are paid out through tools like Wise or paypal.

Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#26

Post by 908B64B197 »

keewee7 wrote: post #9

I promise you any Afghan developer reading this would prefer Visa sponsorship to get him/her and their family out of Afghanistan and the miserable refugee camps in nearby countries. The US has a very high pay ceiling for H1B but in most other Western countries it should be feasible to do Visa sponsorship for an Afghan or Syrian web developer and his family. I know Danish companies who hired Syrian engineers and it's…

> The US has a very high pay ceiling for H1B but in most other Western countries it should be feasible to do Visa sponsorship for an Afghan or Syrian web developer and his family.

And then you'll see people from the countries with a lower bar whine on this very forum of low pay...

Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#27

Post by 908B64B197 »

I would advise against this.

If a bank won't let you wire money there, I don't think regulators will look kindly on you using crypto to bypass that. So good luck raising money or selling the company with what looks like illegal activity in your accounting books. And that's if the contractor you're hiring is "clean". If he's found to have ties to an organization on a watch list, you're looking at federal charges.

Now, to be completely honest, I have reasons to be skeptical of a lot of asylum claims from Afghanistan, seeing how the ANA just flat out abandoned their bases and surrendered without a fight in mere weeks. I'm wondering if a lot of these able bodies young "refugees" men had dual allegiances the whole time, seeing how they welcomed the Taliban with open arms as soon as the (US taxpayer funded) checks stopped coming in.

It sounds like these asylum claims would be a perfect opportunity to hustle western passports. Wouldn't be the first time [0]

[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/migration-fake-syrian-passpo...

Re: Ask HN: Remote Work for Refugees and Asylum Seekers?

#28

Post by WelcomeShorty »

TekMol wrote: post #7

That raises some interesting legal questions. If you pay to someone who "can't verify their identity" you are basically paying some anonymous person or institution. Is that legal? In the US? In Europe? I have no idea. Anybody in the know? I know that in Europe, depending on which country you pay to, you have to do different types of paperwork. So someone in country X in Europe has to do different type of reporting wh…

Absolutely true, if we do not do the KYC dance, we will be accused of illegal money transfers.

Image how easy it would be come to launder money with anonymous payments.

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