China: Stop abusing Africans during the COVID-19 pandemic, African leaders protect your citizens overseas
2 min read
The recent videos and photos accompanied by reports and testimonies from some Africans living in China, illustrating relegation of the African race while tagging them as the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic should be a call for concern in the African continent. There is a need for the African leaders to step up the game in protecting their citizens living abroad by all means including coming up with a common policy as a continent that will deter such attacks by forcing or encouraging other countries to respect our rights. Some of these downgrading treatment of Africans based on their race are forced quarantines, evictions and refused services in Guangzhou
it is reported that in early April 2020, there was a massive campaign to forcibly test the Africans living in the area for coronavirus in the city of Guangzhou which is one of the city hosting many Africans. This campaign was a result of the announcement made by the authorities of the said city that every foreigner must adhere to measures put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus including testing, sampling, and quarantine. This was not the case as only Africans were targeted for these measures.
The worst case is that not only the citizens from China are harassing the Africans in their country but the authorities are involved including police brutality. The Chines government has denied the inhuman treatment of Africans in their country, but some African states have queried the Chines ambassadors across the continent including Nigeria. Ghana etc. while ambassadors from different African countries to China have written to the Chines Government expressing their dissatisfaction.
Closed to two thousand African Human Rights Institutions, civil society initiatives, and human rights activists have recently urged the African Union to call China to order in that regard. Human Rights and Legal Research Centre is encouraging African leaders to do something better in protecting the rights of Africans abroad especially during these trying moments.
The question is, can the Africans do the same to the Chines nationals in Africa? If that happens, the government will react brutally against its citizens and can even arrest and detained or use weapons in that regard. But the Chines government is waxing its tail and telling the Africans, we do not discriminate against foreigners without doing anything to its citizens violating the African’s rights, not even attempting to punish them for their crimes.
That is why Africa must unite and come up with communal foreign policies which will be binding to all states and friendly to human rights. This will make us strong and thus influential in the management of global affairs.
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
