Beijing: A video of migrant workers fleeing an iPhone factory in China following a lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus has gone viral on social media.
Stephen McDonnell, the BBC’s correspondent in China, said on Twitter:
A general lockdown has been announced in China’s Zhengzhou after the spread of Corona has increased. This is where the huge factory of Boxcon, which makes Apple’s iPhone, is located.
A large number of workers at the plant jumped over the fence and fled fearing the corona restrictions. This includes women. With transport services completely stopped due to the Corona shutdown, Paxcon workers have started walking to their hometowns, which are more than 100 km away. About 50 percent of the world’s iPhone production is done at the Boxcon plant in Chengdu. About 3,00,000 workers are working here.
Among them, many people have been infected with Corona and they have been quarantined, according to the information. Due to this, many are said to be dangerously crossing the fence to get out of the plant, fearing for their lives. Video footage shows the evacuees taking refuge on roads, fields and hills and slowly making their way towards the town.
The video footage also shows locals setting up free distribution stations near the highway to help workers leaving Foxconn.
In this dire situation, they cannot expect help from the government or Paxcon. They can only rely on the tender mercies of nearby civilians.
However, the exact number of workers at the Paxcon plant has not yet been released. The BBC reporter said this.
In the last seven days alone, the number of corona cases in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, has increased from 97 to 167. Due to the action taken by the Chinese government to completely eliminate the corona, the city with a population of one crore has undergone a partial lockdown.