The Australian government has revoked Katie Hopkins’ visa. The far-right British columnist is being deported after bragging about violating the country’s quarantine rules.
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Hopkins, 46, broadcast a live video from her hotel in the Australian city of Sydney last weekend. She described the lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history”. Both Sydney and Melbourne are currently in lockdown due to the rising number of infections with the new corona virus. Currently, Australia is registering about 100 new cases a day nationally, which is relatively low compared to other countries. However, the Australian government has opted for a “zero cases” strategy.
Furthermore, Hopkins joked about elaborate plans to violate Australian quarantine rules. In the same Instagram video, which was later deleted, she said she would scare the people who bring 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, the collaboration was terminated on Sunday. Her contract stated that she was not to disgrace the network.
On Monday, Australian Home Secretary Karen Andrews announced that Hopkins’ visa would be canceled. She was then deported on a flight to the United Kingdom on Monday afternoon local time. She was also fined for not fulfilling her mask obligation.
“Painful for stranded Australian citizens”
However, the criticism of the entire incident has not yet passed. Questions are being raised as to whether Hopkins was allowed to enter the country at all while tens of thousands of Australian citizens are still stranded abroad. The country has had a closed borders policy since March 2020 and the number of international commercial flights that are allowed to land in Australia has been halved since July 14 because authorities were concerned about the contagiousness of the delta variant.
Furthermore, people entering the country are required to be in hotel quarantine, but the government has only provided 3,070 places for this. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Australian citizens are still stranded abroad.
“This is particularly painful for the 35,000 Australians still trapped abroad,” said Australian MP Andrew Giles. There is also a lot of criticism on social media.
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