Germans, Australians dragged to government ‘quarantine centers’ for COVID-19 by Raymond Wolfe for Life Site News
Quarantine centers in Germany have included prisons, and Australian authorities have resorted to isolated camps under 24-hour surveillance.
More than a dozen people have been forcibly placed in government isolation facilities in Germany while hundreds of people have been held in similar Australian centers as Western countries continue to ramp up the use of forced quarantine centers in the name of stopping COVID-19.
A recent survey by German newspaper Welt am Sonntag found that at least 15 people have been taken to quarantine facilities in Germany’s 10 largest cities since the beginning of the year.
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The 15 individuals, who allegedly violated at-home isolation requirements for COVID-19, include 11 in Munich, two in Stuttgart, and one each in Düsseldorf and Frankfurt, Welt am Sonntag reported. The full number of cases is likely higher, as authorities Berlin and Leipzig did not provide figures to the paper.
Some of the quarantine facilities were located within prisons, according to Welt. “Most of the federal states have closed areas in hospitals or prisons for quarantine breakers,” the outlet noted. “In Eisenhüttenstadt, Brandenburg, refusals were last housed in a former deportation detention center, in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, in a Solingen clinic.”
Germany has longed allowed forcible quarantine of people suspected of having infectious diseases and who refuse to submit to other isolation measures. The German Infection Protection Act of 2000 specifically authorizes “placement in a locked hospital” or “locked facility” to that effect. “The fundamental right to freedom of the person can be restricted in this respect,” the law states.
With hundreds of thousands of Germans subject to domestic quarantine orders at any given time, city authorities typically “check” residents “if there is a specific suspicion,” according to Welt. In Stuttgart, officials rely on “special tipsters,” including “neighbors, acquaintances and relatives.”
“A city spokesman emphasized that contact with alleged quarantine breakers took place immediately.”
The 10 largest cities in Germany have also initiated more than 250 fine proceedings for quarantine violations, the newspaper noted. Fines ranged between 250-1,000 euros, though they can run up to 25,000 euros.
Australia’s COVID camp crackdown
The Australian government has taken forced quarantine a step farther. This summer, Australian authorities began constructing COVID-19 quarantine camps across the country, including in Victoria and the Northern Territory (NT).
Some centers have already opened, as in the NT, where hundreds of people who have tested positive for the virus or had close contact with someone who did – as well as thousands of international travelers – have been relocated for at least two-week stays.
