Dolls wearing life jackets sit in a boat that moves over the crowd at a festival. Banksy received harsh criticism from the British Home Secretary for this art action. The artist counters.
The street artist Banksy is arguing with the British Home Secretary James Cleverly over an art project. At the Glastonbury music festival last Friday, Banksy, whose identity is unknown, had a rubber dinghy with dolls in orange life jackets hoisted into the crowd. He wanted to draw attention to the fate of irregular migrants in the English Channel.
Cleverly criticized the action as disgusting and unacceptable, saying it “trivialized” the crossing of migrants in small boats.
Banksy criticizes arrest of rescue ship
Banksy has now countered: Cleverly's criticism is “a bit exaggerated,” wrote the Briton from Bristol on his official Instagram account, where he makes his works and actions public. Banksy stressed that the rescue ship MV “Louise Michel,” which he financed, had rescued 17 unaccompanied minors from the Mediterranean on Monday night. “As a punishment, the Italian authorities have seized it – which seems disgusting and unacceptable to me.”
According to the “Louise Michel”, the crew of the ship, which flies the German flag, is accused of ignoring instructions. According to the report, the ship was supposed to head for the port of the Sicilian town of Pozzallo after the rescue. Due to the bad weather forecast, the crew set course for Lampedusa and finally received permission to bring the survivors ashore there.
Rwanda plans in jeopardy
Migration is a major issue in the UK ahead of Thursday's general election. Every year, tens of thousands of people cross the English Channel into the country without the necessary papers.
The conservative government in London wants to deter irregular migrants with strict laws and deport them to Rwanda regardless of their origin. However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's conservatives are likely to be voted out of office in the vote. The likely new social democratic government wants to scrap the Rwanda plan.
