Banksy-Funded Refugee Rescue Boat Calls for Emergency Help

ROME, KOMPAS.com – A refugee rescue vessel funded by British street artist Banksy found itself stranded and in need of emergency assistance Saturday.

The German-flagged refugee rescue vessel Louise Michel needed reinforcements after lending help to a boat in the Mediterranean Sea that was carrying at least one dead migrant.

The rescue boat became overcrowded and unable to move after encountering another boat attempting to cross the expanse dividing Europe and Africa with 130 people on board.

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"There is already one dead person on the boat. We need immediate assistance," the crew of the 31-meter (101 feet) Louise Michel wrote on Twitter, saying other migrants had fuel burns and had been at sea for days.

The vessel's crew of 10 had earlier rescued another 89 people from a rubber boat in distress on Thursday, and said European rescue agencies had so far ignored its distress calls.

The boat — named after 19th-century French anarchist Louise Michel — was around 90 kilometers southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa early on Saturday, according to the global ship tracking website Marine Traffic.

Thousands of people are thought to have died making the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean to flee conflict, repression, and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

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Banksy's decision to fund the high-speed boat follows a body of work by the artist that has leveled scathing judgments on Europe's halting response to the migrant crisis.

I can't keep the money

Painted in hot pink and white, the Louise Michel features a Banksy artwork depicting a girl in a life vest holding a heart-shaped safety buoy.

The motor yacht, formerly owned by French customs, is smaller but considerably faster than other charity rescue vessels — enabling it to outrun Libyan coastguard boats, according to The Guardian.

Its crew is "made up of European activists with long experience in search and rescue operations" and is captained by German human rights activist Pia Klemp, who has also captained other such rescue vessels, the paper reported.

Banksy's involvement in the rescue mission goes back to September 2019 when he sent Klemp an email.