How a Chinese Man Hoping to Tour Europe Fell Into Germany’s Refugee System
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Version 0 of 1. BEIJING — To Germans, he was the mysterious “refugee who wasn’t,” a 30-year-old man from Jilin Province in China who somehow got mistaken for a refugee and was swept up into Germany’s vast processing system for two weeks. That fate befell him even after German officials discovered — with the aid of a local Chinese restaurant worker and a translation app — that the man was not applying for asylum, but instead hoped to roam Europe as a tourist. On social media on Tuesday, Chinese commenters highlighted what they viewed as either the courage or the naïveté of their fellow citizen, who apparently traveled alone to Europe speaking only Mandarin. Others felt that the man, still unidentified, secretly intended to emigrate. The man’s odyssey apparently began at the Stuttgart airport on July 4. There, said Christoph Schlütermann, the German Red Cross official who eventually unraveled the mystery, he had been robbed of his wallet. He turned to airport police officers for help, but with the language barrier they evidently mistook him for someone seeking asylum, Mr. Schlütermann said. As is routine for asylum seekers, he was taken to a processing center — in this case in Heidelberg, normally a popular Chinese tourist destination. From there, he was sent to another refugee reception center in Dortmund, and from there to the Westphalian town of Dülmen. Mr. Schlütermann, who runs the former British Army base there with beds for about 200 refugees, said the man arrived there July 8. A colleague alerted Mr. Schlütermann to what he believed was the traveler’s odd behavior. “Something is wrong,” the assistant told his boss. Eventually, the Red Cross enlisted a translation app and the help of an employee from a nearby Chinese restaurant and discovered the error, Mr. Schlütermann said. It took several more days of calling consulates, embassies and German functionaries to recover the man’s passport. He eventually left Dülmen on July 20, apparently headed for his original destinations in France and Italy. On Monday, the local newspaper Dülmener Zeitung ran an article under the headline, “The Refugee Who Wasn’t.” German national news media followed suit. There was still no official confirmation of the tale by Tuesday. Calls to the Chinese Embassy in Berlin and the Chinese consulate in Düsseldorf yielded no more information about the man or his ordeal. But one thing was certain: The mystery traveler lit up Chinese social media. “To dare to travel independently unable to communicate, respect for this brave man,” wrote MiaIsNotMiao on Weibo, a popular Twitter-like social media site. “Was it on purpose? A shortcut to immigration?” asked Susan6046. An internet meme even sprang up, showing a hapless-looking Chinese man in a panda bear costume and the words: “Do you … have a quota … or not?” While in Dülmen, the man received food and drink, a place to sleep and 31.5 euros, about $35, in pocket money, Mr. Schlütermann said. That is standard treatment for asylum applicants arriving in Germany, which has taken in more than one million migrants over the past year and a half. On Weibo, some people expressed sympathy for the mystery man. Others were less understanding. “What is eating, drinking, getting money for free, and being served?” Zhuangzhuangyi wrote. “Didn’t he have a good time?” |