The Australian government has canceled Katie Hopkins’ visa. The far-right British columnist has been deported after boasting about violating the country’s quarantine rules.
Hopkins, 46, aired a live video from her Sydney hotel last weekend. She called the shutdowns “the greatest hoax in human history”. Sydney and Melbourne are currently under lockdown due to the high number of novel coronavirus infections. Currently, Australia is recording about 100 new cases per day nationally, which is relatively low compared to other countries. However, the Australian government opted for a “zero cases” strategy.
Furthermore, Hopkins joked about detailed plans to violate Australian quarantine rules. In the same Instagram video, which was later deleted, she said she would scare people bringing her food by opening her hotel door naked and without a mask.
Hopkins was in Australia to participate in the TV show big brother australia. However, after her sensational video clip, the collaboration was terminated on Sunday. Her contract stipulated that she would not disgrace the network.
On Monday, Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews announced the cancellation of Hopkins’ visa. She was then put on a flight on Monday afternoon local time, bound for the United Kingdom. She was also fined for not fulfilling her mask obligation.
‘Painful for stranded Australian citizens’
However, criticism of the whole incident has not yet passed. Questions are being raised about whether Hopkins has ever been allowed into the country while tens of thousands of Australian citizens remain stranded abroad. The country has implemented a closed border policy since March 2020, and the number of international commercial flights allowed to land in Australia has halved since July 14 because authorities were concerned about delta variant infection.
Moreover, people entering the country are required to be in hotel quarantine, but the government has only made 3,070 places available for this. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Australian citizens remain stranded abroad.
“This is particularly painful for the 35,000 Australians still trapped overseas,” Australian MP Andrew Giles said. There is also a lot of criticism on social media.
