#Banksy secretly funded this hot-pink refugee rescue yacht

British street artist Banksy is financing a pink-painted former French customs yacht, sailing beneath a German flag, to help save migrants stranded between north Africa and Europe, the Guardian reported.

So far, the 101-foot boat — named Louise Michel, after the French female anarchist — has saved 194 people in three rescue operations since surreptitiously setting sail from Spain on August 18. Those taken aboard in the first two rescue missions have since been transferred to the rescue boat Sea-Watch 4.

The Louise Michel, now in the central Mediterranean, is staffed by 10 crew members and operates independently of Banksy, who solely provides financial support and boat art: The ship’s side is haphazardly colored in pink and bears a variation of Banksy’s famous “Girl With Balloon” in which the child now wears a life jacket and holds a heart-shaped buoy.

The vessel is run by Pia Klemp, a former non-governmental organization (NGO) boat captain who has taken part in thousands of refugee rescues. Banksy contacted her about a rescue-boat collaboration in 2019, via an email which she initially thought was a joke, she told the Guardian.

Bansky graffiti on the Louise Michel, a migrant search and rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean and financed by the British street artist. Seen at sea on August 17, 2020.

via REUTERS

In this undated handout photo, people pose for a picture after being rescued by the Louise Michel, a migrant search and rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean and financed by British street artist Banksy.

via REUTERS

The Louise Michel, a migrant search and rescue ship operating in the Mediterranean and financed by British street artist Banksy, is seen at sea.

HANDOUT via REUTERS

A handout picture released by the M.V. Louise Michel team on August 28, 2020 and taken on August 22, 2020 from an inflatable boat (left) that is part of the Sea-Watch 4 civil sea rescue ship operation. British street artist Banksy is funding the Louise Michel, which is covered with his artwork. The pink ship has rescued migrants in the Mediterranean and has so far picked up at least 89 people.

M.V. LouiseMichel/AFP via Getty

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“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,” Banksy’s email read. “Could you use it to buy a new boat or something? Please let me know. Well done. Banksy.”

“I don’t see sea rescue as a humanitarian action, but as part of an anti-fascist fight,” Klemp said, adding that she believes the Louise Michel’s ability to reach a top speed of 27 knots hopefully equips it to “outrun the so-called Libyan coastguard before they get to boats with refugees and migrants and pull them back to the detention camps in Libya.”

The ship maintains an official Twitter account where it posts sporadic updates. “The #LouiseMichel exists because current European policy is to deliberately ignore distress calls and let people drown,” it tweeted Friday. “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!”