A refugee rescue vessel funded by British street artist Banksy called for urgent help late Friday after lending assistance to a boat in the Mediterranean that was carrying at least one dead migrant.

The boat, named ‘Louise Michel’ after the 19th-century French feminist anarchist, said it was “reaching the State of Emergency” after encountering the boat 130 people as they attempted to cross the expanse dividing Europe and Africa.

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“There is already one dead person on the boat. We need immediate assistance,” the crew of the 31-meter Louise Michel wrote on Twitter, saying other migrants had fuel burns and had been at sea for days.

It has been operational since last week. On Thursday it rescued 89 people, including 14 women and four children, from a rubber boat in distress, the group said on its website.

In picture: Migrants rescued by the Louise Michel in the Mediterranean Sea

A former French Navy boat daubed in pink and white, the 30-meter long Louise Michel was bought with proceeds from the sale of Banksy artwork, the group said. The side of the vessel’s cabin features an artwork of a girl holding a heart-shaped life buoy in his familiar stencilled style.

The boat was around 90 kilometres southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa early on Saturday, according to the global ship tracking website Marine Traffic.

Thousands of people are thought to have died making the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean to flee conflict, repression and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. 

Banksy’s decision to fund the high-speed boat follows a body of work by the artist that has levelled scathing judgements on Europe’s halting response to the migrant crisis.

Painted in hot pink and white, the Louise Michel features a Banksy artwork depicting a girl in a life vest holding a heart-shaped safety buoy. 

Early this month, humanitarian organisations said they would resume migrant rescues in the Mediterranean Sea where none have operated since the Ocean Viking docked in Italy in early July.

Before the Ocean Viking’s last mission, rescue operations in the Mediterranean had been suspended for months due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

More than 100,000 migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean last year from north Africa with more than 1,200 dying in the attempt, according to the International Organization for Migration.