Banksy: 'Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant'

Street artist Banksy took to one of the largest migrant camps in western Europe to create a new work of art highlighting the merits of migration. One of the mural's in the Jungle refugee camp in Calais, which is home to 7,000 people shows the late Apple founder, Steve Jobs with a black bin bag containing belongings slumped over one shoulder while carrying an original Apple computer.

The piece is a reminder of the innovator's background as the biological son of Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, a Syrian migrant from Homs, which is now ravaged by war. "We're often led to believe migration is a drain on the country's resources, but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant," Banksy said in a statement.

"Apple is the world's most profitable company, it pays over $7bn (£4.6bn, ‎€6.4bn) a year in taxes - and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs [western Syria]." A makeshift clothes line with t-shirts and tents pitched atop some dirt in a picture of the mural from a different angle. The message "nobody deserves to live this way!" can also be seen sprayed on the wall in a wide shot of the piece.

Banksy also painted several other surfaces with his work, including one based on Theodore Gericault's Raft of the Medusa, a 19th century painting regarded as "an icon of Romanticism", according to the Louvre. Banksy's take shows shipwrecked refugees scrambling to get the attention of a luxury yacht passing by in an echo of Gericault's piece, in which he decided to "represent the vain hope of the shipwrecked sailors: the rescue boat is visible on the horizon – but sails away without seeing them."

After dismantling his Dismaland theme park in Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset, the anonymous artist shipped materials to the Jungle in Calais for emergency shelter. "When Dismaland closed its doors it was that decided that instead of chucking all the leftover crew in the bin they should be recycled into aid workers," Banksy's site said. "They've since travelled to the Calais migrant came and so far have completed 12 dwellings, a community area and a children's play park."