The African community in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is on edge after widespread accounts were shared on social media of people being left homeless this week, as China’s warnings against imported coronavirus cases stoke anti-foreigner sentiment.
In Guangzhou, Africans have been evicted from their homes by landlords and turned away from hotels — despite many claiming to have no recent travel history or known contact with Covid-19 patients.
CNN interviewed more than two dozen Africans living in Guangzhou, many of whom told of the same experiences: being left without a home, being subject to random testing for Covid-19, and being quarantined for 14 days in their homes, despite having no symptoms or contact with known patients.
This comes amid heightened media coverage of the so-called second wave of coronavirus cases, emanating from infections outside China.
Earlier in the week, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged authorities to carefully watch for imported cases from other countries, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Kenyans on Twitter have greatly criticised the Chinese government after clips of Kenyans and Africans decrying mistreatment by the locals emerged online.
Some Africans said they are being chased away from public transport and other utilities, saying: “Foreigners and particularly black people are currently not allowed to access public places including malls, restaurants, and hospitals. Landlords are evicting them, they chase them out of hotels and make them go through all sorts because of Coronavirus.”
Tobenna Victor, who is a Nigerian student said, “They are accusing us of having the virus. We paid rent to them and after collecting rent they chased us out of the house. Since last night we have been sleeping outside.”
Another account given by Lunde Okulunge Isidore, who is a businessman from the D.R.C implies that some Africans are not being informed of their test results and some are being forced into quarantine without knowing the results of their tests.
