Xinjiang COVID-19 Infections Result In Poor Quarantine Conditions

Theresa Erna Jürgenssen

East Asia Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

Contrary to government claims and official figures, the Chinese government has struggled to contain Covid-19 infections in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In response, government officials seem to be attempting to take immediate action to quarantine large amounts of people in makeshift quarantine facilities.   

In particular, the government released a video ordering anyone who tested positive or who had had contact with someone who had tested positive to quarantine in spontaneously created quarantine facilities. In the recording, the Chinese Communist Party secretary in Urumqi [1], Ma Zhijun, explains that for the moment any facility that has “water, electricity and heat” and where people can stay must immediately be converted into a quarantine facility (Ma Zhijun, 2022). 

Radio Free Asia has collected several videos [2] depicting the problematic conditions of these makeshift quarantine facilities. According to one video, people have been quarantining for three days in a middle school but have not yet been given any Covid-19 tests. Moreover, the floor and restrooms seen in the recording are in poor hygienic conditions. Another video demonstrates several people lying, seemingly for sleeping purposes, on a bathroom floor. Additionally, a video has shown a significant amount of people – 1,000 as estimated by the person recording – packed together in proximity of one another in one of the facilities. The person has also claimed that no medicine had been provided inside the facility. 

This information surfaces at the same time as numerous claims suggesting that China’s Covid-19 responses have led to starvation and other subpar living conditions. These newly emerged videos demonstrate further how people’s rights are violated in an attempt by the Chinese government to prevent any further spread of Covid-19. Nevertheless, the facilities that Covid-19 patients have been ordered to quarantine in are cause for serious concern. 

In light of this, it is pertinent to draw attention to some of China’s human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In particular, pursuant to Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to access to adequate food, clothing, and housing. Article 12 of the same Covenant recognizes the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes the “(c) prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases” as well as (d) the creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness”. The right to health further extends to “the underlying determinants of health, such as food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and portable water and adequate sanitation” (CESCR, General Comment No. 14, para. 4). 

Notes:

[1] The capital of Xinjiang. 

[2] Radio Free Asia has so far been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the videos.

Sources and further reading:

RFA Uyhur (2022, November 04). In Xinjiang, a scramble to contain COVID. Radio Free Asia. Retrieved on November 07, 2022, from https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/xinjiang-covid-11042022154717.html. 

UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) (2000, August 11). General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12). Retrieved on November 07, 2022, from https://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d0.html.