LOL: Banksy’s Migrant ‘Rescue’ Boat Calls to be Rescued by the EU
A migrant transport funded by the so-called street artist Banksy demanded help after overloading the vessel with more than 200 people picked up off the coast of Africa.
Crew on the Louise Michel, which is painted pink and named after a French anarchist, sent out tweets on Friday night and Saturday calling for “immediate assistance” from authorities in Malta, Italy, and Germany — but seemingly not any of the safe North African countries nearby — and denounced the EU’s supposed ‘Fortress Europe’ migration policy.
“#LouiseMichel is unable to move, she is no longer the master of her manoeuvre, due to her overcrowded deck and a liferaft deployed at her side, but above all due to Europe ignoring our emergency calls for immediate assistance,” activists on the boat tweeted Saturday.
The message followed a series of tweets in which the crew informed followers of their attempts to contact relevant authorities in EU countries, as well as a post proclaiming that the vessel “exists because current European policy is to deliberately ignore distress calls and let people drown”.
Despite Banksy being worth an estimated £38 million (50 million USD), according to reports, the crew made it clear that they expect taxpayers to foot the bill for housing and feeding the migrants in their homelands, with the artist merely funding their transportation to Europe.
The crew tweeted: “States are relying on civilians to prevent mass loss of life in the Med. Now we rely on them to give the survivors a Place of Safety — and we need it now!”
Known as a “street artist”, Banksy published a video explaining that he decided to buy a French navy vessel and turn it into a migrant transport because “All Black Lives Matter”, denouncing EU countries for allegedly “deliberately ignor[ing] distress calls from ‘non-Europeans’”.
On Saturday morning the crew repeated its calls for help, posting to Twitter that the Louise Michel, which has a maximum capacity of 130 passengers, “is unable to safely move and nobody is coming to our aid”.
Open borders activist Claire Faggianelli, who prepared the boat for its maiden mission, saw the project as a “wake-up call for Europe”, according to the left-wing Guardian.
“We really want to try to awaken the consciousness of Europe and say: ‘Look, we have been yelling at you for years now. There is something that shouldn’t be happening at the very borders of Europe, and you close your eyes to it. Wake up!’” she said.
Banksy’s ship has now been evacuated by the Italian authorities and the Sea-Watch 4 migrant transport operated by pro-migration NGOs.
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