Koreans, Chinese Face Racism Due to Coronavirus

The High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for solidarity with the people of Asian descent, who are subjected to discrimination because of emerging Coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

The Italian newspaper "The Vision" published a report, through which it highlighted the manifestations of intolerance, hatred, and racism against the Chinese following the emergence of the new Coronavirus.

In its report, the Italian newspaper said that the fear of Coronavirus infection has made some international newspapers to promote lies and rumors that advise people to avoid contacts with Chinese ethnicity and not to visit regions with a high presence of Chinese.

Hence, the Chinese tourists in the world became a mockery, In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) has tried hard to prevent manifestations of racism.

With the spread of news related to the newly emerging virus, which firstly appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and then swept quickly across the globe, the incidence of xenophobia towards the Chinese increased, according to the newspaper.

CNN website also reported that international newspapers have contributed greatly to the escalation of discrimination.

The manifestations of xenophobia also appeared in Australia, as inflammatory advertisements were published via various social media platforms underlining the need to avoid areas with a high presence of Chinese people.

The Australian newspaper "Herald San" talked about the Coronavirus in an article that raised a great controversy to the extent that the Chinese community in Australia filed a petition for an official apology.

Last but not least, the newspaper reported that French citizens of Chinese origin launched a social campaign "I am not a virus". The campaign was launched via Twitter by Lu Ching Wang, to spread immediately around the whole world.

In fact, there is a difference between the one who always keen to publish true information and the one who competes to write the two most disastrous and exciting titles.

On the other hand, the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has refused to allow South Korean travelers to use an on-board toilet, on the pretext of Coronavirus outbreak.

The incident occurred on a KLM flight to Incheon from Amsterdam on Monday when a crew member posted a note written in Korean on the door of the restroom, which read "Lavatory For Crew Members Only."

Later, KLM added an English version after the note was pointed out by a South Korean passenger who took a photo and shared it with her friends via social media.

KLM immediately came under fire for discriminating against South Koreans, though the airline said it was an "amazingly stupid mistake" of an inpidual crew member.

"This is a human mistake, and we apologize for it," Guillaume Glass, general manager for operations in South Korea, Japan and New Caledonia at KLM, said.

"We take the allegations that we have discriminated against a part of our passengers very seriously. We are deeply sorry that this was viewed as discrimination, which was absolutely not the intention of the crew."