05/09/2020
Bristol's famous artist Banksy has put his money where is mouth is and has purchased a former French navy vessel to act as a refugee rescue vessel, based in the Mediterranean, where several ships already work to take migrants to European ports. The motor vessel Louise Michel is painted in pink and currently has several hundred people on board, aiming to reach Europe from impoverished or war torn countries. The humanitarian workers aboard the Louise Michel, and another refugee rescue boat, the Sea Watch IV, have been waiting for a safe port for days, but say that their requests for assistance have been poignantly ignored by governments in the nearest territories of Malta and Italy. A spokesperson for the Banksy vessel, said that the International Law of the Sea obligated the nearest states to take refugees in without quibbling. The EU states, he said, had conveniently forgotten their own laws.