Katie Hopkins travels to Sicily to meet far-right extremist group ‘Defend Europe’
Categories: Latest News
Tuesday July 25 2017
The Independent reports on Katie Hopkins travelling to Sicily in order to meet with a far-right group known as ‘Defend Europe’.
Defend Europe are a group of young Europeans who are anti-immigrant and anti-Islam activists. They have managed to crowdfund close to £180,000 and ‘hire out a 422-tonne vessel to block and harass’ humanitarian organisations who are trying to rescue refugees.
The ex-Apprentice contestant has previously harboured hostile views against migrants, infamously commenting in 2015 that she would “use gunships to stop migrants.” A spokesperson from the campaign ‘Hope not Hate’, who have launched an anti-racism campaign, have been lobbying against Defend Europe. They made a statement to The Independent saying “What Katie Hopkins did, posing next to Italian fascist graffiti, having pictures taken with Holocaust deniers and right-wing extremists, and openly sharing content from Defend Europe, was move from being a journalist or even a commentator, into a full-on propaganda/PR machine for an extremist operation.”
Katie Hopkins has yet to respond to these reports.
Over 90000 refugees and migrants have been rescued and brought over to Italy so far, however more than 2500 people have died on this migration route in 2017 alone.