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/
