Coronavirus: South Africa asks Hong Kong to remove its citizens from government quarantine list
- Consul General Madoda Ntshinga wants approach changed and points to country’s success in dealing with coronavirus
- South African citizens on list along with Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal
South Africa has asked the Hong Kong government not to routinely send travellers from the country to quarantine camps when they arrive in the city.
Madoda Ntshinga, Pretoria’s consul general to Hong Kong and Macau, said the policy could be seen as discriminatory, when arrivals from Britain and the United States, two countries that have struggled to contain the coronavirus, were not subject to similar treatment.
“We have just appealed to the Hong Kong government that having observed all the regulations and measures we have taken, especially the lockdown regulations, we do qualify to be one of the countries that can be put as one of the better countries handling the pandemic,” Ntshinga said.
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An estimated 200 South Africans, who live and work in Hong Kong, had been stuck in their native country, but a group of 36 returned on Thursday afternoon on a commercial flight, and some were sent to a government quarantine camp in Pat Heung.