The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is appealing for solidarity with all those who have suffered violence and discrimination because of their origins or ethnicity in connection with the coronavirus epidemic in the past days and weeks.
Members
of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association
have
documented cases such as the aggressive behaviour towards students
from China from Polish students of the Gdansk University of Physical
Education and Sport or the brutal beating of a Chinese-born cook who
has lived in Wroclaw (Poland) for 25 years. In Warsaw, a group of
young men and women shouted ‘coronavirus’ in the faces of three
young Vietnamese women studying at the Polish university Collegium
Civitas. Three teenagers in the Polish town of Lukow attacked a
Vietnamese woman living there. They shouted ‘you are from China’,
‘you have coronavirus’, ‘get the f.ck out of here you Chinese
slut!’, threw garbage at her, spat in her direction and when she
tried to walk away, they followed her. Similarly, people belonging to
other minorities have been experiencing xenophobia. For example, many
hostels have used the new health regulations as a reason for
insisting that all non-Polish nationals, mainly Ukrainians, vacate
their rooms immediately. Xenophobic comments and conspiracy theories
are becoming increasingly common on the internet.
‘NEVER
AGAIN’ has noted similar acts of hostility towards people of Asian
origin occurring in other countries all over the world, including
France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Australia, Canada,
and the USA. The victims have suffered physical and verbal abuse.
Examples include: in Berlin (Germany) two women brutally beat up a
Chinese woman who then needed hospital treatment for head wounds. In
Bologna (Italy) four people attacked a 15 year old boy of Chinese
origin. They kicked his whole body shouting ‘What are you doing in
Italy? Get out! You are spreading disease.’ In Brussels (Belgium)
near the Southern railway station, an attacker punched a man of Asian
origin in the face. In London (UK) a Singaporean man was punched in
the face while the perpetrator shouted at him: ‘I don’t want your
coronavirus in my country.’ In the USA, one of the passengers on
the New York subway attacked a man of Asian origin demanding that he
leave the train, hurling insults and spraying him with an unknown
substance. On a San Francisco bus an elderly lady verbally abused a
14 year old girl, accusing the Chinese of spreading the virus.
-‘The
virus of racism and hatred can be as dangerous as the coronavirus’
- states the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. -‘In difficult times,
we need global solidarity and cooperation to meet the common global
challenges more than ever.’
On 21 March
1960, in Sharpeville (South Africa) the police shot 61 peaceful
demonstrators who were protesting against the racist system of
apartheid. The United Nations General Assembly declared a Week of
Solidarity with the People Struggling Against Racism and Racial
Discrimination beginning on 21 March.
The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent organization established in Warsaw in 1996. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, both in Poland and internationally.
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