Banksy Dismantles His Theme Park To Provide Shelter For Refugees


Banksy has announced that materials from Dismaland, his so-called ‘bemusement’ park, will be donated to desperate refugees in Calais, France. Dismaland opened in Weston Super-Mare, England in August this year, and attracted 150,000 visitors in its five-week run. The park will be dismantled today. Banksy himself didn’t take the place too seriously, saying the installation was “ambitious, but also crap.” He added: “I think there’s something very poetic and British about all that.”

Now, the elusive street artist and internationally renowned activist says his cutting-edge exhibition would be more useful if it were recycled into much-needed shelters for the estimated 5000 refugees living in one of Europe’s worst refugee camps: Calais, France.  The so-called ‘migrant‘ crisis in Greece and Italy has hit headlines around the world, but one place that tends to receive less attention is the makeshift camp in Calais. For several years now, refugees primarily from Syria, Eritrea and Libya have found themselves stuck in the Northern French town, trying to get into the UK to seek asylum.

These refugees, who live in squalor with little or no help from the French government, risk their lives trying to jump fences or stowaway in trucks heading across the Channel to England. Their numbers are growing, and many of them are children. Some have been living in ‘The Jungle’ for years, and donations of tents, blankets and medicine are urgently needed as we move into the bitterly cold winter season. The video above shows the harsh reality of life as a refugee in Calais: including being pepper-sprayed and beaten by police.

The Calais Migrant Solidarity group is doing amazing work to make life a little more bearable for those living in The Jungle. Click here for more details on how you can donate money, time or goods to support them.


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