The UK's immigration minister Robert Jenrick is the centre of a storm ordering the removal of children's cartoons from the wall an asylum centre. News agencies say Mr Jenrick instructed staff the Kent Intake Unit to remove murals of Disney characters that were there to soothe asylum-seeking children. The Unit looks and processes child migrants who are unaccompanied parents. The BBC said Jenrick reportedly believed the art sent a message that the UK was "too welcoming". A government spokesperson said: "Our priority is to stop the boats and disrupt the people smugglers." One the UK government's top five priorities is to stop the arrival asylum seekers "small boats".
British artists have responded to the removal the art offering their services to redecorate the Unit. The celebrated British illustrator and cartoonist Guy Venables has enlisted other high-profile artists to create works art that are welcoming highly distressed child refugees. Mr Venables told The Art Newspaper: "I've offered to repaint the mural… the refugee centre." Venables was "baffled" that the original murals were painted over. He called it a "display astonishing, pointless cruelty". He said his artwork might make Jenrick "think twice vandalising several professional national cartoonists' work just to deny a vulnerable child something fun to look ."
