Canadian embassy objects to students' quarantine
The Canadian embassy has lodged an official objection to the continued 'detention' of a group of university students in Changchun , Jilin province , despite the lack of medical evidence linking them to the swine flu outbreak.
The 26 students and their instructor - 22 of whom are Canadian citizens - were placed in quarantine when they landed at the northeastern city on Saturday night even though they had been cleared through customs at Beijing.
The University of Montreal students were supposed to begin a 10-week language course at Northeast Normal University, but are currently sitting out a seven-day isolation period in a small hotel on the outskirts of Changchun.
'We have submitted a diplomatic note with the Chinese authorities,' a spokesman for the embassy in Beijing said yesterday.
'The note expresses our concern at the fact that the students were detained or quarantined where there was no clear medical reason to expect that they might have been exposed to the virus or were displaying any symptoms.
'We do object to their detention in the absence of any evidence that they might have [swine] flu.' By yesterday, Canada had 165 confirmed cases of A-type H1N1 influenza, making it the third-most affected country after Mexico and the United States.
The spokesman said there appeared to be a discrepancy between the Jilin health authority's treatment of the students and the experience of other Canadian travellers arriving on the mainland.
'We are not aware of any other detentions,' he said. 'That is why we are seeking clarification.'
