Street Art Mural To Raise Awareness About Immigration

Visitors to the seaside town of Sliema in Malta are being greeted by a large street art mural depicting a man climbing into a hole in the wall. The mural was created by the French artist that goes by the name MTO as part of the Sliema Arts Festival which was held in July. 

According the to artist's Facebook Page, the mural is called "The Mediterranean Tunnel" and he was inspired to paint it after reading a quote by an Italian lawyer who had been living in Malta for a number of years and who jumped to Malta's defence when we were receiving negative criticism about the migrants tragedy which took place earlier this year. The quote that he refers to was the following:

"The Maltese have accepted the dead, but not the living. Malta is too small to take in thousands of persons. But if someone is in danger at sea, they pick him up: it is not true they push him back in the water. Then they try not to keep him: that is true. They have a pragmatic approach, but not an inhuman one."

The second part of this mural has emerged 300 miles away in the South of Italy in the town of Sapri. The second part depicts a figure of a bearded grey man emerging from the side of a building. Together these two murals form part of one project that is meant to portray the struggle of migrants who leave African shores and head to Europe in search of a better life. 

According to the artist, this mural is a continuation of one he painted at last year's edition of the Sliema Arts Festival entitled "The Mediterranean Door". When describing this first mural, he claims that "there is [sic] two kind of doors to enter Europe, I have decided to paint the less visible one."

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