A video of actor Richard Gere speaking amid a small crowd of refugees in a migrant boat went viral on social media, drawing mixed reactions online.
While liberals seemed to appreciate Gere’s efforts, the conservatives slammed him for supporting immigrants. Here are some of the reactions to the video:
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The exact location of the boat was not known. The video starts in the middle of his speech where he says “… everyone is doing okay now. There were on two boats in the middle of the ocean. One of the boats was turned back and taken by the Libyan Navy. We don’t know what happened to them. Two boats… they were rescued here. Probably hands on board would have been lost,” he was seen saying in the video.
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He added: “So the people that you see here on this boat, they are only here because of the donations to Open Arms, to the work that Open Arms does. Now the most important thing for these people here is to be able to get to a free port. Be able to get off the boats, get on land and start a new life, taking care of and making a life for themselves. So please support us here.”
Open Arms is a non-profit non-governmental organization with one principal mission: to protect those who try to reach Europe by sea, fleeing from armed conflict, persecution, or poverty; and also to inform and educate on land so that those who migrate can make decisions with complete freedom and knowledge.
According to its website, the intention of the organization is to “monitor and rescue vessels carrying people who need help in the Mediterranean channel, to protect the lives of the most vulnerable in emergency situations on land and to build alternatives to irregular migration in countries such as Senegal, providing people with resources through community awareness and information. In parallel, we continue to denounce all of the injustices that take place that nobody talks about.”