British street artist Banksy has financed a boat to rescue refugees attempting to reach Europe from north Africa, according to a Guardian report.
The 31-metre motor yacht, formerly owned by French customs authorities, is already in the central Mediterranean, where, on Thursday, it reportedly rescued 89 people in distress, including 14 women and four children.
The Guardian said the crew, made up of European activists with long experience in search and rescue operations, were looking for a safe seaport to disembark the passengers, or a European coastguard vessel to take the refugees.
The vessel is named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist. It set off in secrecy on 18 August from the Spanish seaport of Burriana, near Valencia.
Painted in bright pink and featuring Banksy artwork depicting a girl in a life vest holding a heart-shaped safety buoy, the Louise Michel sails under a German flag, and is smaller but considerably faster than other NGO rescue vessels.
According to the report, Banksy’s involvement in the rescue mission goes back to September 2019 when he sent an email to Pia Klemp, the former captain of several NGO boats that have rescued thousands of people over recent years.
The email read: ‘Hello Pia, I’ve read about your story in the papers. You sound like a badass. I am an artist from the UK and I’ve made some work about the migrant crisis, obviously I can’t keep the money. Could you use it to buy a new boat or something? Please let me know. Well done. Banksy.’
[Picture: Mstyslav Chernov/Unframe, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46776362]