Ghanaian narrates how his family was evicted in China over Covid-19

Some Ghanaians in China's capital Beijing were this morning evicted from their apartments over fears of carrying the coronavirus, Covid-19, disease.

This comes a day after hundreds of African residents and businessmen in China’s southern city of Guangzhou have been evicted from hotels and apartments as local health officials rollout a testing campaign for COVID-19.

A victim Joel Asante in a radio interview narrated how his family was evicted early in the morning.

"I am here with my wife and daughter and this happened to us. We heard of this happening in other jurisdictions but this is the first time it happened here. It happened this morning to everybody, we were living on the 10th floor and my wife and child were at sleep by then so I had to call them.  I asked that they should excuse them so that they can go to the bathroom and get themselves ready and they stood at the door, after they came back, they packed our things and escorted us and they took everything that belongs to us downstairs, they call a car and when we got out they put everything on the floor..."  

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According to other reports, those evicted say they are being discriminated against.

“They are accusing us of having the virus,” said Tobenna Victor, a Nigerian student in Guangzhou.

“We paid rent to them and after collecting rent they chased us out of the house. Since last night we have been sleeping outside.”

Businessman Lunde Okulunge Isidore, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: “They came to my house. They told me to wait after 24 hours for the result, [but] after 24 hours nobody contacted me.”

Some residents have told the BBC that they have been evicted from their apartments, others say that they have been put into forced quarantine without knowing the results of their tests.

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On Tuesday, Chinese officials denied online rumours that the virus was spreading in African communities and that parts of the city where Africans reside were under lockdown.

Guangzhou is home to one of China’s largest African communities and has become a hub for African traders buying and selling goods to the continent.

There are rising concerns in China over the increase in the number of imported COVID-19 cases, which authorities fear could fuel a second outbreak.

Since March, Guangzhou has required people arriving from abroad to be quarantined for 14 days.