Chinese backpacker spends weeks in German shelter after being mistaken for refugee

A Chinese backpacker was forced to spend almost two weeks in a refugee shelter in Germany after being mistaken for an asylum seeker.

Junliang was attempting to report a theft when he arrived at Stuttgart airport but instead of filling out a lost item form he accidentally filled out a request for asylum, a German Red Cross official told CNN.

After handing in the form, his passport was taken from him and he was given a train ticket to Dortmund, a city about 417km away, Christoph Schlutermann said.

When he arrived, the  31-year-old who only spoke Mandarin, was officially registered as an asylum seeker and was given a medical examination and piled in a bus with 50 others, refugees from North Africa, Syria and the Middle East, to a shelter in Duelmen.

He slept alone in a shelter that had up to six beds and took part in the refugees' daily routine.

It wasn’t until after Mr Schlutermann, who is also a director of the Duelmen shelter, noticed Junliang and enlisted the help of workers at a local Chinese restaurant that he discovered the staggering error.

Through the help of translators, Junliang was able to tell Mr Schlutermann that he wanted his passport back so he could travel to France and Italy.

Despite Mr Schlutermann not being able to verify Junliang’s story, the backpacker was released 12 days later after making a declaration in front of police that he wasn’t seeking asylum.