Despite the Kerala government’s appeal against acts of targeting foreigners over the COVID-19 scare, instances of the visitors being singled out and humiliated have surfaced in the State again.
The latest incident was reported from Kannur where two tourists had to go without a morsel of food for four days after hotels allegedly refused to serve them any. The foreigners, a man and a woman, were seen crying out of hunger on the wayside by local people at Payyannur in Kannur, following which the police and local authorities extended them a helping hand.
The French and Italian nationals later said they had reached Kannur on March 11 but had not got any food for the last four days and had been starving. They said they wandered here and there and knocked at the door of many hotels and restaurants for food, but no one helped them. Seeing the plight of the visitors, the police and Payyannur civic body authorities bought them food and shifted them to the Thalassery taluk hospital. The tourists, who reached Kerala after visiting Mumbai, Goa and Madurai, had no symptom of the COVID-19, authorities said.
French couple
In another incident, a French couple, who reached Kannur from Wayand on a State-run bus, had to face the wrath of co-passengers. Some local passengers, who got frightened on seeing the foreigners, did not allow the bus to proceed further. A number of passengers even got out of the bus due to the presence of the French couple. The bus was later taken to the Kannur Town police station, from where the couple were shifted to the district hospital for observation. The couple, who reached the State on March 2 via Dubai, had no symptom of the virus in the preliminary examination, the police said.
In Kochi, the police extended a helping hand to 27-year-old French woman Desmazure and her three-year-old child Tao on Monday. The police traced the woman, who had lost her purse and had no money, based on the information provided by local people that a foreigner and child were roaming around the city.
Their trouble began after an enquiry by local health officials found that she had also been to Varkala, from where an Italian tourist had tested positive. She was taken to a hospital and found she had no symptoms. As she had no money, she was forced to spend the night in the hospital corridor. Though a room was provided later, it was not clean and full of cobwebs and mosquitoes.
The police later helped her to contact the French Consulate in Puducherry to arrange money and go to Delhi by train. She was also given a ‘no coronavirus’ certificate by the doctors before departing from the State, they added.
