Germans who run afoul of quarantine rules will be held in detention centers in fenced-off areas of refugee camps under police guard.
In the state of Saxony, people who repeatedly violate the state’s rule to quarantine after a COVID-19 exposure will be moved to a fenced-off section of a refugee camp. The state of Brandenburg plans to use a similar approach.
In Schleswig-Holstein, repeat offenders could spend time in a juvenile detention center, while Baden-Wurttemberg has set up two hospitals to detain offenders under police guard.
State governments in Germany have the authority to detain people under the Disease Protection Act, which was passed by the German Bundestag in March and renewed in November, according to legal experts.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been under increased pressure to get the virus under control in the country and is reportedly considering a “mega-lockdown” that would see the nation’s public transportation system shut down.
But the plan to detain repeat offenders has critics, with Joana Cotar, a member of the Bundestag for the Alternative for Germany political party, accusing Saxony’s government of “reading too much [George] Orwell.”
Germany has seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in recent months, prompting the government to implement a lockdown that closed schools and nonessential businesses in December. Those rules were set to expire on Jan. 10 but were recently extended until at least the end of the month. New rules were also introduced, such as a ban on travel to hot spots and a private meeting attendance limit.
“We must be especially careful now. We are in a new and extraordinary situation,” Merkel said of the new rules.
