There has been only a tiny number of Chinese asylum seekers over the years, Schlütermann said. A Chinese tourist who tried to report a stolen wallet during a visit to Germany unwittingly signed an asylum application that got him stranded as a refugee for two weeks in the country’s burgeoning asylum bureaucracy. He was then taken 220 miles to a refugee shelter in Dülmen and given food and spending money like other refugees. It took German officials 12 days to put the story together and send the 31-year-old tourist on his way, Schlütermann said. “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?”

Source: The Guardian August 08, 2016 15:16 UTC