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China does not stop racism against Africans over Covid-19 | News from the world
Africans continue to be banned from hotels, shops and restaurants in Guangzhou, although Chinese officials have assured governments across Africa that the discrimination resulting from efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic will end.
Racist discrimination in Guangzhou earlier this month sparked outrage in Africa, prompting rare official protests in China from several countries.
Africans in the city who were recently contacted by the Guardian said they still face hostility and racism, driven by the fear that they may be carriers of Covid-19.
Frank Nnabugwu, a Nigerian businessman who has lived in Guangzhou for a year, said that he was not allowed to return to his rented accommodation last week after being released from two weeks of quarantine. Security guards told us: No strangers are allowed. I was upset, very upset. I slept on the street, said the 30-year-old woman.
The police finally found a hotel ready to rent a room in Nnabugwu.
We use the receptionist to order food, said Nnabugwu. If they [food delivery companies] know that it is a stranger who orders food, they will not come. You can’t buy anything in a store; if you come in, they will cover their faces and chase you away.
Kidus Mulugeta, an Ethiopian who moved to China four years ago to study mechanical engineering, said the atmosphere in Guangzhou has changed rapidly.
It was so fast, he said. I went into quarantine We were treated well. Then we went out. Everything was different, uncomfortable. As the Chinese have changed their minds.
Mulugeta, who had a job offer in a Chinese company when he graduated, said that many Africans found it impossible to rent accommodation and were not allowed to enter supermarkets.
They say there are no foreigners, but if it is a Russian or a European, they allow white people to enter, he said.
A Ghanaian computer student said he was in a hotel when police took him to another hotel to place it in mandatory quarantine and that it was tested more than five times.
The 25-year-old, who requested anonymity, said he had been refused entry to 15 hotels and was sleeping on the street. I was refused entry to public places, refused in restaurants. All of the tests they did were negative.