French writer barred from visiting UK
LONDON: British authorities have barred a far-right French writer from visiting the UK, his publisher said on Friday.
Renaud Camus was set to give a speech at a hard-right political party event in Britain next week, but officials turned down his request for a travel permit, his English-language publisher Vauban Books said.
The publisher said the UK’s interior ministry told Camus his presence in the UK was not considered “conducive to the public good”, though the ministry has not commented.
Camus is known for his 2011 book “The Great Replacement” and its conspiratorial argument that white Europeans are being deliberately supplanted by non-white immigrants.
The idea has inspired extreme-right figures like the Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in attacks on two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in 2019. Camus said on X that his application for an Electronic Travel Authorisation had been rejected.
“I have just been notified that I am banned from entering the United Kingdom, where I was due to give a speech next week,” he posted.
Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2025