What is the Louise Michel? Thanks for asking!

The news was broken as an exclusive by the Guardian less than two weeks ago, drawing attention to a crisis which has been getting worse since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Famous British street artist Banksy had funded a project to carry out rescue missions in the Mediterannean Sea, which more and more migrants are trying to cross from North Africa to Europe. To do this, he relaunched a former French navy boat, 30 metres long, painted in pink and depicting a young girl with windswept hair, holding out a heart-shaped safety buoy. The name of the boat? The Louise Michel, after the 19th century French anarchist feminist of the same name.

Well that’s a fitting name for such a project!

On board the Louise Michel are 10 European activists who have significant experience in sea rescue. The NGO vessel is commanded by German captain Pia Klemp, whose ships have saved several thousand people in recent years. An email sent from Banksy to Klemp last year reads as follows: “Hello Pia, I’ve read about your story in the papers. You sound like a badass.” He then offered to buy a boat with the money he had made from his migrant crisis-themed artwork. The plan was carried out secretly between London, Berlin and Spain, so that European authorities would be totally unaware. The boat’s existence only became public knowledge due to having saved 90 people, off the coast of Libya. Some of those survivors had fuel burns and other injuries. The crew carried out a second rescue mission the same night, taking the total number of migrants saved to 220. One person had already died when found on a rubber dinghy. The Louise Michel being able to accommodate a maximum capacity of 120 people, many had to spend several hours on a liferaft deployed alongside. Unable to move their boat, the crew made repeated emergency calls for assistance to Malta and Italy, the closest European countries.

Did anyone come to their help? So will the migrants now be sent to a place of safety in Europe? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

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