Asylum seekers and migrants in Germany and Italy are not respecting measures to help prevent the spread of the Chinese coronavirus, with some becoming violent when confronted.
The mayors of the German towns of Schneeberg and Zschorlau in the Saxony region have both complained to the regional government that asylum seekers at a local asylum home have not been respecting the measures in place to halt the spread of the virus.
According to the mayors, the asylum seekers have been under the impression that the measures announced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week do not apply to them, tabloid Bild reports.
The German leader announced nine measures, including encouraging citizens to keep a safe distance from each other and reducing contact to those outside of their household to an absolute minimum.
Groups of people gathering in public places, apartments, and private facilities have also been banned and violators could see police action. The measures will be upheld until April 5th.
In Italy, a migrant from North Africa attacked a man in a supermarket after being asked to keep to a distance of at least a metre (a little over one yard) in the city of Novara.
The 60-year-old victim was lining up to pay for his items and kept a one-metre distance from the migrant man in front of him, which angered the man and his wife, who started screaming at the man and purposely breathing on him.
When shop employees became involved, the victim said the migrant became even angrier, saying: “He started to rail against the Italians calling them ‘bastards and racists’.”
After leaving the shop, the migrant grabbed the man and kneed him.
The incidents come as some in heavily migrant-populated areas like the Seine-Saint-Denis areas of Paris in France have also largely ignored lockdown rules, with overwhelmed local police saying it would be impossible to enforce the lockdown properly without fear of a violent backlash.