Expat LifehealthNews

Fear and Racism, Signs of COVID-19

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, is hitting Cambodia mercilessly. Schools were ordered to close throughout the country by The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education on Saturday the 14th of March. On the prior day a Canadian staff member of the Canadian International School on Koh Pich had tested positive for the virus. Many schools have switched to teaching their students online in response to the forced closures.

Four days later on Tuesday the 17th of March, the Ministry of Health issued a statement temporarily prohibiting religious gatherings after 17 Cambodians tested positive for COVID-19 after they had returned from a religious congregation in Malaysia.



A British man that visited the Tuol Sleng genocide museum with a Chinese friend were suspected of having contacted the virus and was admitted to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital. The man escaped triggering a manhunt and he was found to have fled to Kampot. The stunt has angered locals adding fuel to the fire making locals feel that foreigners, particularly Westerners, are not taking the pandemic seriously.

While locals are seen wearing protective masks and taking countermeasures, foreigners have taken a much laxer approach worrying more about visa extensions and restaurant closures than about being infected. Foreigners often claim to not take precautions because they feel that masks and hand sanitizers don’t work to combat COVID-19, something that has angered Cambodians and made them feel like Westerners don’t care about their health and safety.

Foreigners have said on social media that hotels and guesthouses flatly reject them as customers. Even small businesses like barbers and clothes shops are reportedly turning Westerners down telling them to go elsewhere.

An expatriate wrote on Facebook that the police had called him and told him to cancel his plans to travel to Kampong Cham because they were afraid he would bring the virus there infecting the local population.

On Thursday the U.S. Embassy to Cambodia said in a statement on Facebook that they had received reports of harassment or discrimination directed at expatriates related to COVID-19 developments. “Security personnel have forcibly closed some restaurants and bars frequented by expatriates”, they wrote warning of attacks targeting Americans.

The Government of Cambodia has announced a 30-day suspension of entry into Cambodia for foreigners traveling from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Iran — effective March 17. Cambodian authorities have not provided details on implementation of this suspension, including whether immigration officials will allow American citizens with residence or work permits to enter Cambodia and under what conditions.

Several airlines report that, under instruction from Cambodian authorities, they are not currently boarding citizens from these six countries on international flights into Cambodia.

Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice. Quarantine policies in Cambodia are unclear and not well-established, and may be unpredictable. Foreigners traveling or residing in Cambodia who are required to observe a public health quarantine may experience austere, unsanitary, or ad-hoc conditions.

In Thailand, Minister of Public Health and Deputy Prime Minister took to Twitter to criticize Western foreigners saying they are dirty people who don’t shower. After visiting Chiang Mai he noted that “not a single one was wearing a mask”. He estimated that 90% of the Thais in the northern city were wearing masks trying to protect themselves and their peers from becoming infected.



“We must be careful about them,” he said, suggesting that the Westerners had closed off their countries and were avoiding each other.

In Vietnam, businesses have also refused Westerners after WHO declared Europe a new epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. Several businesses have put up signs to prevent Westerners from trying to use their services.

On Wednesday the Prime Minister of Vietnam made a statement that businesses that were found to discriminate against foreigners out of fear of COVID-19 transmission build be strictly punished.

15 thoughts on “Fear and Racism, Signs of COVID-19

  • Ha ….Vietnam
    No Surprises there.
    Vietnamese were cunts when the virus wasnt an issue.
    Now they are just being bigger cunts.

    Reply
    • Stephen Sowten

      “Cunts are useful ,
      your not” .
      From the 1990s Australian movie , Ghosts of the civil dead .

      Reply
  • Asian countries has been mostly a health hazards, even before the spread of their Chinese virus.
    And their Thai official abusing and insulting us foreigners by calling us dirty people when their polluted and filthy Asian countries which are full of Asians with dirty habits acting as if they are so ” superior” just because they cover their face with a mask! I guess they tried hide their true nasty colors wth their mask.

    Reply
  • I believe it does not help to generalize. If one person says that foreigners don‘t shower, why bother? People act out of fear in times of uncertainty, Asians and Westerners alike. We should stand together against this thread, not getting divided. We wear masks out of respect for our Asian friends who are so kind to let us live in their beautiful countries. Wearing a mask does not harm and might add to the protection. We all don’t know the facts yet about this virus. Don‘t get angry. Act together. This virus could have developed anywhere – nobody is a culprit and we all take showers. Let‘s stand and fight the virus together. Thank you

    Reply
    • Maverick Ryan

      Have you stood up yet ? How do we get foreigners & local Asians to come together ? Where & when are we going to ” stand up ” and how long is this stand going to take ?

      Reply
  • It is a fact that most Asian places are extremely filthy, divisive, discriminative, nasty, whenever they think they have a so-called upper hand. Is is not surprising that their virus originated from China.
    Keeping our environment and air clean and healthy is more important than wearing any sort of mask. It is time those Asians stop pretending that they are more hygienic than Westerners because it is a fact most places infested by Asians and Africans are known to be dreadful places to live in, unhygienic and unsafe.

    Reply
  • Hi WA, Thank you for your reply. You say it is a fact that most Asian places are extremely filthy. Can you name a source for this fact? Are you referring to cities, the countryside or whole countries? And how does this help to overcome the current crisis? One of the few facts I am aware of that helps against the virus is to wash hands thoroughly with soap for at least 20 seconds. I don’t think that reciprocal bashing helps. You have so much knowledge to share how to fight the virus. Share it with your environment, please share it with those around you. If you are unhappy with Asia, don’t go there. But if you live in Asia (do you?) I am sure that everybody around you whom you help will be happy and show their gratefulness. Have you tried? Good luck and please stay healthy!

    Reply
  • Hi Greg,
    Thanks for your reply.
    Unfortunately, I was and am still forced to live in their mostly filthy and polluted environment.
    It is a fact, most Asians care very little for the environment. Most of them are only interested in getting filthy rich.They keep on building condos, apartments, shopping malls in already overcrowded places in Asia. They polluting our world with more needless high rise building and haphazard congested living. Unfortunately, most of them are greedy and failed to maintain a basic standard of cleanliness. Look at the filth in their public eating places, trains, buses and planes in Asia. I could go on and on about their careless typical Asian attitudes towards the environment. Too many of them depend on foreigners they tend to treat like slaves to do their cleaning because they looked down on jobs that require lots of cleaning.
    Many of those better off Asians think they are entitled to have people cleaning up after them. Of course I can name many incidences but I am afraid those intolerant Asians would come after me for trying to expose their nasty habits.
    It is not my choice to be stuck with their often hostile and filthy Asian environment. Indeed, if everyone care for their environment, it would be a more bearable place to live in.
    The fact is most parts of Asia that I was unfortunate to travel to or live in, are still very filthy and too crowded. They have to learn to clean up their filth. They cannot expect us foreigners to clean up after them or be their slaves.
    I know they are obsessed with having slaves to clean up their filth but we not born to be their slaves in their Asiatic hellholes.

    Reply
  • Arrogant Asians such as Cambodians need to be more tolerant when people pointed their filth, their greed, their racist discriminative practices, etc.
    Blacks at least are less pretentious and more honest unlike most Asians who appear initially to be subtle with their nastiness, even though many of them are worse than Blacks in their filth, greed and nastiness.

    Reply
  • WA – I’d love to take a look at that time machine you used to get here from the past.

    Reply
  • Traveler

    And now that the gloves are off we see what is what. I see it as people mainly just being scared because of the way the media have handled reporting of the virus’. The WTO aren’t, in my opinion, helping in this regard. Every paper publishing infection rates ( unreliable as known through extremely limited testing rates) and the latest death toll without any statistics to show age, co-morbity, etc fueling the fear and racism. The Thai government are acting totally irresponsible allow the DPM to release these anti ‘ foreigner ‘ statements.

    Reply
  • This happens around the world. Lot of Asians were attacked, spit on, and harassed in NY, London, Sheffield, Sydney, etc.
    Although two wrongs doesn’t make it right, there is no need to blow this out of proportion just because several restaurants and hotels denied entry to whites. Good thing they didn’t attack or spit on you. Imagine if you were Asians in western countries and must go through all the shits that they went through due to this condition. Every country has its own rule and regulation. Follow them or just get the fuck out. It is quite simple really.

    Reply
  • @KAKA
    I am Asian and I have to say most Asians behaved badly given the slightest reason or for no reason to do so and very often their Asian communities irrational hatred for the West tend to be excessively harsh and irrational. Nobody forced those Asians to go to Western countries either and those Asians should not expect special privileges especially after they caused so much damaged and harm to our lives.
    I personally came across too many abusive Asians bullies. They too should get out of Western countries if they hate the West so much.

    Reply
  • John Wickersham

    Chinese are driving the hate. Remember they have infiltrated Cambodia’s economy due to the pro chinese Hun Sen government. Chinese hate westerners, they don’t like the truth that Westerners are exposing about them. The Chinese propaganda is happening in Cambodia too. I notice some of my cambodian friends who were not pro chinese have had a strange change of position. I suspect chinese controlled cambodian media are driving a anti westerner propaganda. Never, ever, forget that the Khmer Rouge are the product of China creating them, brainwashing, feeding and arming them. Chinese are behind the drive behind south eastern asian country propaganda against westerners.

    Reply

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