Petition calling for Katie Hopkins to be swapped for 50,000 refugees is signed by 50,000 people
Hopkins has been under pressure to apologise for a comment piece she wrote earlier this year
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A petition calling for Katie Hopkins to be swapped for 50,000 refugees has been signed by over 50,000 people.
The controversial columnist has faced calls to apologise over a dehumanising comment piece that compared people fleeing war and persecution to cockroaches. Her piece stoked anger again after a harrowing image of a dead Syrian boy emerged and a petition urging the British Government to accept its fair share of refugees was launched.
Hopkins reacted to the death of hundreds of refugees who died when their boat capsized earlier this year by advocating using gunships to stop people attempting to reach Europe’s shores.
"No, I don't care,” she wrote in a column for The Sun. "Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad. I still don't care.” Hopkins has not responded directly to calls for her to retract her piece and The Sun said it had no plans to take it down.
Now, a Change.org petition is proposing Hopkins be sent over to Syria to free up space her “massive head takes up” for refugees.
The petition launched by Tickhill resident Ben Fletcher reads: “The facts are they deserve a lot more than she does, and it would be a win win all round, we help people and save their lives and at the same time get rid of the UK's contribution to the hall of national embarrassments.”
Hopkins finally commented on the refugee crisis in a tweet on Monday criticising British foreign policy on Syria, where four million people have been displaced by civil war.
The refugee crisis continues to escalate as thousands of people displaced by war and facing persecution make the perilous journey to Europe. Leaders across the EU are facing calls to do more to tackle the increasingly desperate situation by accepting and supporting a quota of refugees arriving every day.
On Sunday, over ten thousand men, women and children reached Munich to cheering residents holding welcome signs and offering food and water.
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