Nine days ago, Jerry Christian, a 24-year-old Ugandan student, was forced into mandatory quarantine in Guangzhou, southern China. He was removed so swiftly from his apartment by seven policemen and four doctors that he could not read the name of the hotel he was taken to. Officials locked him in his room and warned him that he faced punishment if he protested in any way.

“I don’t feel safe,” Christian told me via a WhatsApp voice call. He added that he has no recent travel history and had been tested negative for the virus by the authorities less than a week before he was detained. “I was healthy,” he said. “I’m worried about my life.”

Christian’s experience mirrors that of a number of people in Guangzhou, a manufacturing hub of 13 million residents and home to the largest African population — about 15,000 — in China. While restrictions on movement were lifted after a 76-day lockdown, local authorities in Guangzhou maintained that Africans must remain quarantined amid fears that they are spreading the virus. Around 4,500 African traders, students and migrants now face strict pandemic control measures, including repeated testing and arbitrary isolation in government facilities, hotels or their apartments.

The crackdown began in early April after five Nigerians tested positive for Covid-19. Local authorities upgraded the risk levels in two African communities and began forcefully isolating them. Videos on social media showed Africans being turned away from public spaces, including a local McDonald’s, which had put up a notice that read, “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant." McDonald’s China has since issued an apology in a statement to NBC News.