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Forums - General Discussion - Chinese tourist in Germany taken for a refugee, stays almost two weeks in refugee camp

OMG, I've been giggling ever since I've read the first news about this... This is too funny!

A chinese tourist decided to go on a trip across Europe. In the german city of Heidelberg, he unfortunately got his purse stolen.

He decided to go to the police, but somehow ended up in the town hall. Due to the tourists complete lack of both german and english, the employee at the town hall did not understand what he wants, and somehow... simply believed the tourist to be a refugee trying to seek asylum in germany. So the employee handed the tourists an asylum plea, and not understanding a single word of the form he was handed, the tourist apparently believed the form to be theft report and signed the form, just as requested by the town hall employee.

That sealed the tourists fate, and he became a victim of german bureaucrazy: His passport and visum were taken away and he was given refugee documents instead. Then he was taken to a refugee camp 400 kilometers away, his fingerprints were taken, he got a medical check and finally a little pocket money. Afterwards, he was apparently simply left to rot in the refugee camp...

Finally, more than a week later, the chinese tourist caught the attention of an employee of the red cross working in the refugee camp, who found it strange to see a refugee so well-dressed. He tried to communicate with the chinese, but failed. He tried to seek advice at a chinese restaurant, where they advised him to install a translation app on his smartphone. When the translation app translated "I want to go walking in Italy", the red cross employee finally realized the misunderstanding.

However, it still took several days before the tourist could finally leave the refugee camp again, thanks to german bureaucrazy, so the tourist ultimately spent almost two weeks at the refugee camp. When he left, the chinese tourist showed no sign of anger because of what had happened to him - he just stated that Europe was "different than he expected"...

https://www.rt.com/news/355103-chinese-man-refugee-germany/



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sounds like he had fun, and could be made into a movie.



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I feel sorry for the dude. However, why is he travelling if he doesn't know any english?



Lmao. I don't know what to say. I suppose something similar could happen to everyone who is lost in a country where you don't speak the language. But I am also suprised that the employee was not smart enough to call for a translater. But at the same time, don't sign something you don't understand...



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This sounds like a Mr. Bean-esque comedy.



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deskpro2k3 said:
sounds like he had fun, and could be made into a movie.

Indeed.

Teeqoz said:
I feel sorry for the dude. However, why is he travelling if he doesn't know any english?

That baffles me as well, just as...

Peh said:

But I am also suprised that the employee was not smart enough to call for a translater.

...this.

There are actually so many strange details about this that I still wonder if the whole story is actually true:

- why did the town hall employee even believe him to be a refugee? Chinese refugees are very, very rare after all...

- why let they just sign him an asylum plea (or generally speaking, any form) if it's obvious that he doesn't understand a single word of what he signs?

- how was the tourist planning to communicate if he didn't even know english? Didn't he even have any kind of translator?

- why didn't he complain much more when he was taken to the refugee camp and the several days after? Didn't he realize there must be a misunderstanding?

- why didn't anyone else sooner think of getting a translator?

etc...



OMG this is hilarious

deskpro2k3 said:
 could be made into a movie.

Absolutely, I can imagine some scenes already, it could be fun.



WTF?? Fucking Beamte. Only employ the biggest morons.

Then again, how do you travel europe without knowing a single word of the local languages?



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vivster said:

Then again, how do you travel europe without knowing a single word of the local languages?

Say what??

There are thousands of Americans on river cruises up the Rhine. Few of them speak Dutch, Flemish, French, German, Luxembourgish, ...



vivster said:

WTF?? Fucking Beamte. Only employ the biggest morons.

Then again, how do you travel europe without knowing a single word of the local languages?

Isn't that kinda what tourists have to experience when traveling across Europe? I only know "danke" and "guten tag".



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