African Communities Together joins several other organizations that serve African immigrants in New York in a strong statement condemning discrimination against African immigrants due to the Ebola scare.
In Wake of New York Ebola Diagnosis, Coalition Warns Against Intolerance and Attacks on Immigrants
In the wake of New York’s first Ebola diagnosis, the New York Immigration Coalition is alarmed by reports of harassment and hate crimes directed at members of West African communities, including the bullying and attacks on two recently-arrived Senegalese teenagers in Staten Island on Friday of last week.
In light of these troubling events, the Coalition urges a clear, rational, and evidence-based response from policymakers and the public, and is concerned that Governor Cuomo’s support of a flight ban and implementation of a quarantine policy for health care workers returning from West Africa feeds both misinformation about how the virus is spread and the best means for its control. International public health authorities, including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, make clear that Ebola is not spread through the air or by contact with people who are asymptomatic.