Ghana’s Ambassador to China, H. E. Edward Boateng has condemned the increasing discrimination and targeted campaign of forced testing, forced quarantine and evictions against Africans living in Guangzhou, China, adding that not all foreign nationals were treated equally in this case. According to him ” These acts go against the spirit of the Sino-Africa cooperations, the Focac Beijing Declaration of 2018 and the Vienna Convention Principles on Consular Affairs”.
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Several African nationals in Guangdong Province are stranded at public places with their belongings as they have been evicted from apartments and hotels hence rendering them homeless.ĺ
The Ambassador in a Zoom cloud meeting with leaders of the Ghanaian community in China explained the Government of Ghana had taken the matter up seriously.
“Days back, I received phone calls from students in Guangzhou about a mandatory nucleic acid testing that the Guangzhou authorities were carrying out on foreigners. That I thought was inappropriate even if the “intent” is to protect everyone. They should as a matter of diplomatic protocol start such testing by informing us through official channels. Rather a text message was sent first to the Consular General at 9.00 pm
The Ambassador added that for the Guangzhou authorities to start mandatory testing without engaging them and later going ahead to evict African nationals is inhumane and disrespectful.
“The African Diplomatic corps has met on the matter and will soon share a communique expressing our displeasure and the next steps” he added.
According to media reports, Chinese officials have started evicting hundreds of African residents and businessmen from hotels and apartments. The Africans say they are just being targeted under the guise of a testing campaign for the COVID-19. Some of them alleged that they have been placed under forced quarantine without being told about the results of their tests.
Guangzhou houses one of the largest African communities in China. African traders buy most of their goods from the area to sell in the continent