Victoria has implemented strict new penalties for city-slickers trying to escape to regional areas of the state.
Residents of Greater Melbourne, who are subject to stage four lockdown restrictions, trying to escape to regional Victoria where restrictions have been slightly eased will be slapped with a $4957 fine.
But it’s nothing compared to some of the sanctions around the world. Crikey takes a look at some of the strictest — and strangest — COVID-19 punishments out there.
Asia-Pacific
Indonesia: Photos of people in East Java forced to dig graves as punishment for disobeying mask mandates had people talking last week. The punishment was more of a publicity stunt than anything else, designed to send a message to anti-maskers.
Sign up for a FREE 21-day trial and get Crikey straight to your inbox
Philippines: President Rodrigo Duterte hasn’t shied away from gross human rights abuses in the past, so why would a pandemic change anything? Human Rights Watch has accused police and local officials of locking young people in dog cages, forcing people to sit for hours in the sun, cutting children’s hair, and forcing them to walk home naked as punishment for breaking restrictions.
India: police in India have resorted to some weird tactics, forcing rule-breakers to perform squats and push-ups, and writing “I have violated lockdown restrictions, keep away from me” on their foreheads.
More seriously, others have been beaten with batons for not obeying curfew or obeying physical distancing.
They didn’t break any rules, but in the early days of the pandemic migrant workers returning from Delhi were sprayed with bleach to disinfect them.
New Zealand: Returned travellers refusing COVID-19 tests simply have to stay in self-funded hotel quarantine a little longer. They can be held for up to 28 days for refusing a test. The rules are more strict for those who break out of quarantine: with fines of up to $4000 or six months’ jail.
Europe
Germany: A woman from the United States faces possible assault through negligence charges. She worked at a popular ski resort, returned to Bavaria from abroad and despite having COVID-19 symptoms she kept socialising while waiting for test results.
Spain: For the first time in history, Spain has banned smoking on the street to help minimise virus transmission. Those who break the rules face fines of hundreds of euros.
Greece: Knowingly breaking COVID-19 restrictions and spreading the virus can land you behind bars for life in Greece. Those who break the rules unwittingly face up to two years in prison.
Africa
Kenya: In late March, a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed while standing on his balcony as police enforced the coronavirus curfew. Others were beaten and had tear gas fired at them hours before a curfew was implemented.
South Africa: Police forced rule-breakers to roll along the road and do squats, and officers in Johannesburg used water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse people clustered outside a grocery store.
South America
Paraguay: Those who disobeyed quarantine were forced to do star jumps while being threatened with a taser.
Columbia: Armed groups not officially associated with the government have begun enforcing the law, threatening, killing and assaulting those who disobey.
Leave a comment
Strange choice of countries listed when you consider the title. Punishment in NZ is paying for lockdown? At least we are not being caned or shot at yet so its all good. Its still Australia right?
One wonders . . as a species, have we truly ‘evolved’ since time traversing those vast African velds?
I know it’s half a century old now, but biologist Desmond Morris’ The Human Zoo still contains lots of food for thought regarding modern humans and their behaviours…
Most thoughtful people who read dystopian novels find it hard to imagine how a given society began the process of moving from normal to subservience.
I doubt that many would have believed how quickly every western “democracy” has succumbed to mass hysteria.
What next?
That is the sixty four thousand dollar question, what’s next? Look at Victoria now, is it a democracy still? Look at the failure of our federation and the several different versions of Australia we live in, democracy? I guess we all get to vote Evey few years, but is that enough to call it a democracy?
What I find puzzling in the universality of this very sudden reaction, from governments & populations of every conceivable taste, tendency & history.
Almost as if there a grand plan being broadcast through the 6G ether.
Imagine if socialist, autocratic or democratic countries had acted with the same alacrity & similar purpose on little things like food, shelter & clean water for all.
Who knows, Peace might have broken out and then where would Capital finds its obscene profits?
Actually at least one socialist country acted promptly and among other measures quarantined incoming travellers as early as January when the news was first announced. As a result Nicaragua has had the lowest casualty rate in the region (although Nicaragua’s enemies say the figures are ‘cooked’) and was able to continue ‘business as usual’ with simple social distancing measures. This has received strong criticism from neighbouring countries with full lockdown, and the hostile mainstream media as being ‘irresponsible’. Nicaragua has been able to do this because they were geared up by February with tens of thousands health workers going door to door, giving advice and handing out masks. The hospital system (one of the best in the Central American region) was enhanced in preparation for a possible influx of cases, and a biolab set up (again, the only one in the region). If this is socialism, bring it on!
Probably Cuba too.
Decades of sanctions & enforced isolation does tend to make a people/country resilient.
Whether it’s worse elsewhere doesn’t ease the difficulties for Australians nor does it usefully inform policy. Instead we might compare the penalties suffered by citizens for not wearing masks or breaching a furfew with the ‘penalties’ for government figures who broke their own rules and allowed infected Ruby Princess passengers to mix with healthy Australians, or the people who allowed the aged care dabacle to occur. It’s become one law for public officials and an utterly different law for everyone else. Government v the people. Is that democracy?