The vessel has been financed and painted by the secretive graffiti artist
Banksy is behind a pink search-and-rescue vessel, the Louise Michel, currently sailing in the Mediterranean. The British street artist has been financing the boat’s operations, helping refugees cross over from North Africa to Europe. The Louise Michel – named after the prominent nineteenth-century French feminist anarchist – is crewed by European activists who have worked for Sea-Watch, a German NGO that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean.
The artist approached Sea-Watch captain Pia Klemp last year. ‘You sound like a badass,’ Banksy told Klemp, according to the Guardian. ‘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?’
The vessel has been decorated by the artist, including a girl wearing a life-jacket holding a heart-shaped buoy (referencing his Balloon Girl works) and splashes of pink paint. The boat set off in secret on 18 August from the Spanish port of Burriana and has reportedly rescued 89 people so far.
The crew are currently searching for a safe seaport for passengers to disembark, in a bid to evade the Libyan coastguard. The return of migrants to the war-torn country, aided by EU member states, often to detention camps, has been the subject of much criticism – with reported mistreatment at sea by the coastguard, and by militias at Libyan harbours. The International Organization for Migration estimates more than 7,600 people have been intercepted and returned to Libya this year alone.
