Australian artist Luke Cornish said he has no regrets about creating a mural at Sydney's Bondi Beach, as one local councillor calls for it to be removed.
The artist, who also goes by the name E.L.K, said he thought carefully about what he wanted to say when he was invited to submit an idea for an eight-metre long mural on the sea wall at the world-famous beach.
"It's a comment on our treatment of asylum seekers in Australian detention facilities - onshore and offshore," he told SBS News on Wednesday.
The mural has been criticised as "offensive propaganda".
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A line of 24 Australian Border Force officers is depicted with the phrase "not welcome to Bondi".
"The 24 officers is symbolic of the 24 suicides in Australian detention facilities since 2010," he said.
"Bondi is the image we portray to the world as sun and sand but unfortunately a lot of them [asylum seekers] are not welcome to Bondi."
Since 2010, there have been 24 suicides in Australia's offshore and onshore detention centres, according to The Australian Border Deaths Database.
Over the last six years there have been at least 12 deaths on Manus Island and Nauru: including the deaths of Fariborz Karami (aged 26), Rakib Khan (26), Sayed Ibrahim Hussein, Jahingir (29), Hamed Shamshiripour (31), Faysal Ishak Ahmed (27), Kamil Hussain (34), Omid Masoumali (23), Fazal Chegeni, Hamid Khazaei (24), Reza Barati (24) and Rakib Khan (26).
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The mental health of refugees on Manus and Nauru has deteriorated in recent months, with the Refugee Action Coalition saying there has now been more than 95 self-harm incidents, involving more than 62 asylum seekers and refugees.
'People who don't have a voice'
The idea for the mural was vetted by the local council and Cornish said he was given "full creative licence" with the project.
"I was really just given the opportunity to say something, so I used that opportunity to speak for people who don't have a voice."
Cornish says the mural is "a comment on our treatment of asylum seekers in Australian detention facilities".
Facebook/luke.cornish
