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Chinese tourist who lost wallet in Germany ends up in refugee shelter Chinese tourist who lost wallet in Germany ends up in refugee shelter
(about 3 hours later)
A Chinese tourist who lost his wallet in Germany signed the wrong paperwork and ended up being placed in accommodation for refugees. A Chinese tourist who tried to report a stolen wallet during a visit to Germany unwittingly signed an application that got him stranded as a refugee for two weeks in the country’s burgeoning asylum bureaucracy.
Christoph Schluetermann, an official with the German Red Cross which runs the home, told DPA news on Monday that the man “set machinery in motion that he couldn’t get out of”. The 31-year-old, known as Mr L, spoke only Mandarin. German authorities discovered their mistake after turning in desperation to a local Chinese restaurant to interpret for them, a Red Cross official said on Monday.
The unidentified man’s troubles started in early July when he lost his wallet after arriving in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart. Officials have concluded that instead of going to police to file a stolen goods report, he ended up at an authority that presented him with an asylum application. Christoph Schlütermann, an official with the German Red Cross, which runs the home, told DPA news on Monday that the man “set machinery in motion that he couldn’t get out of”.
From there, he was sent to Dortmund in northwestern Germany and on to the refugee home in Duelmen. “He simply did what he was told,” Schluetermann said. “He spent 12 days trapped in our bureaucratic jungle because we couldn’t communicate,” he said. “Germany is unfortunately an extremely bureaucratic country. Especially during the refugee crisis I’ve seen how much red tape we have.”
Schluetermann said he quickly noticed the man because “he was different from the others – very, very helpless.” Related: Yusra Mardini delights with butterfly heat win for Refugee Olympic Team
With help from a translation app and then from a translator at a Chinese restaurant, it became clear that the man wanted to travel on to France and Italy, not seek asylum. After being robbed in the tourist town of Heidelberg, the man went to city hall, which he thought was a police station, where he signed an asylum application. He was then taken 220 miles to a refugee shelter in Dülmen and given food and spending money like other refugees. “He simply did what he was told,” Schlütermann said.
It took German officials 12 days to put the story together and send the 31-year-old tourist on his way, Schluetermann said. More than one million refugees have arrived in Germany in the last year, fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. There has been only a tiny number of Chinese asylum seekers over the years, Schlütermann said.
The man was fingerprinted and given a medical exam, but drew the attention of staff partly because he was well dressed. “But he [also] acted so differently to other refugees,” said Schlütermann. “He kept trying to talk to people to tell his story but no one could understand him. He kept asking to get his passport back, which is the opposite of what most refugees do.”
With help from a translation app and then from a translator at a Chinese restaurant, it became clear that the man wanted to travel on to France and Italy, not seek asylum. It took German officials 12 days to put the story together and send the 31-year-old tourist on his way, Schlütermann said.
“It was an extraordinary moment for us all. He said Europe was not what he had expected,” said Schlütermann, adding that the man was happy to leave but not upset. “What would you expect if you had come to Europe as a tourist and spent 12 days sleeping on a camping bed in a refugee centre?”