Letter Writers meet with Nizza Siano from Labor for Refugees

The Letter Writers’ February meeting kicked off with a wonderful and very knowledgable
guest speaker. Nizza Siano is the National Secretary of Labor for Refugees (L4R)
as well as the Secretary for NSW and the ACT branches. She began her speech
by sharing with us her own migrant background as the daughter of holocaust
survivors.

Her obvious empathy for the plight of refugees and asylum seekers led to her
being one of the founding members of Labor for Refugees in 2001. Their
advocacy work and suggested reforms have kept refugee issues alive at Labor
Party Conferences where pressure is exerted to implement humane and
principled policies. As Nizza pointed out, these reforms do not always come to
fruition. However, she believes that continuing the fight from within the
organisation is the only way to bring about change.

One of Labor for Refugees’ recent successes has been the instigation of a
Parliamentary Inquiry into Offshore Detention. Many of our own members
have made submissions to this Inquiry pointing out the cruelty and cost of the
current policy.

L4R has campaigned for refugee issues in a political environment that
continues to disregard the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum. Nizza
and her colleagues are to be congratulated for their persistence in creating a
more humane Australia.