A 31-year-old Chinese backpacker checking out the sights and sounds of Germany made a rather large mistake last month. According to a story on the BBC, the tourist claimed asylum instead of reporting a theft, as he had intended to do. The tourist apparently had his wallet stolen, and made a big-league error when he registered as a migrant instead of filing a police report. Whoops.
“He was so different from the others. Very, very helpless,” – Red Cross worker Christoph Schluetermann
The tourist apparently freely surrendered his visa and passport when asked, allowed his fingerprints to be taken, and was placed in a German migrant hostel for 2 weeks. There he received meals and some walking-around money. According to WDR (German news station) the man wasn’t angry at all, but “left Germany saying simply that he had imagined Europe to be quite different.”
Ummm, yeah. The guy spoke neither German nor English, and apparently failed to remember it was 2016 and this could all be cleared up with a translation app…. which was installed on his phone. A quick search of the phone’s history showed intent to be a tourist, and continue on to see Italy and France, and not, in fact, to become the freshest Chinese-German immigrant on the block.
“It came up with phrases like ‘I want to go on a trip abroad,'” Schluetermann said.
Eventually the process was halted, and the man was allowed to go on his way.
Image courtesy: lawandborder.com
A 31-year-old Chinese backpacker checking out the sights and sounds of Germany made a rather large mistake last month. According to a story on the BBC, the tourist claimed asylum instead of reporting a theft, as he had intended to do. The tourist apparently had his wallet stolen, and made a big-league error when he registered as a migrant instead of filing a police report. Whoops.
“He was so different from the others. Very, very helpless,” – Red Cross worker Christoph Schluetermann
The tourist apparently freely surrendered his visa and passport when asked, allowed his fingerprints to be taken, and was placed in a German migrant hostel for 2 weeks. There he received meals and some walking-around money. According to WDR (German news station) the man wasn’t angry at all, but “left Germany saying simply that he had imagined Europe to be quite different.”
Ummm, yeah. The guy spoke neither German nor English, and apparently failed to remember it was 2016 and this could all be cleared up with a translation app…. which was installed on his phone. A quick search of the phone’s history showed intent to be a tourist, and continue on to see Italy and France, and not, in fact, to become the freshest Chinese-German immigrant on the block.
“It came up with phrases like ‘I want to go on a trip abroad,'” Schluetermann said.
Eventually the process was halted, and the man was allowed to go on his way.
Image courtesy: lawandborder.com
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