In light of the recent migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean where 700 were believed to have died, British journalist and television personality, Katie Hopkins earned the disapproval of numerous netizens after she compared migrants to "cockroaches" in her latest Sun column.

The 40-year-old Hopkins, who first appeared on television in 2007 on the reality TV program "The Apprentice" as one of the contestants, is known for making critical and controversial comments over the years. In her Sun column, she said that migrants are survivors who were like cockroaches that looked a bit like 'Bob Geldorf's Ethiopia circa 1984' but built to survive a nuclear bomb. According to Mirror, Hopkins also said that she didn't care if migrants die trying to leave their countries on a boat and added that she would not be moved even if she were shown dead bodies and coffins floating on the water. 

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The controversial star's comments caused outrage on social media, instantly triggering a flurry of angry tweets from people around the world, perplexed by Hopkins' anti-migrant sentiments and insisted that her hateful description of migrants do not fall under free speech, but rather of hatred. 

Even Piers Morgan took to Twitter to call on Hopkins for her appalling statements, saying that Hopkin's racist statements that caused outrage is not the same as "expressing provocative opinion."

Soon, an online petition began, calling the British newspaper to fire Hopkins as a columnist. According to The Guardian, the petition already had 180,000 signatures on Monday after Hopkins said gunships should be used to prevent migrants crossing the Mediterranean, bringing about over a hundred complaints to the press regulator. The target number of signatures is 200,000.

The Guardian further reported that The Sun now has 28 days to put its case to the press regulator, and then Ipso will rule on whether Hopkins' column breached an editor's code that prohibits the use of racial generalizations. The ruling will take up to a month after the British newspaper's-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News UK, response.

TagsKatie Hopkins, Sun column, Controversy, migrants, racist