Category: Uncategorized

Catherine CrittendenJuly 28, 2020Uncategorized

Can you help Shan? He is currently in the Mantra Prison in Melbourne, but with sufficient funds donated, he could be sponsored to live in freedom in Canada. L4R member Jill Horton explains how here.

Next L4R meeting in June

Please attend our meeting to discuss where to now, after Labor’s win in the recent election.  Labor can no longer hide behind the fear that it will be wedged by the Coalition if it dares to implement its own refugee policies, adopted at the ALP National Conference in 2023. 

Issues that deal with refugees, must no longer be treated as the ‘elephant in the room’, just because refugees did not feature as a priority in the election campaign.

The Minutes of our previous meeting dated 28 May follow MinutesNSW-ACT28May25

Ride for Education – update in the lead up to Refugee Week
The Cisarua Learning Centre in Indonesia is fundraising for the Centre and for women in Afghanistan with Muzafar Ali and his team’s marathon bike ride.

The epic journey continues.  They are currently heading down to Moruya for a screening of The Staging Post.Yesterday (Tuesday), they had a beautiful event in Canberra and a hugely significant visit to the Embassy of Afghanistan.The Embassy, as seen by the mulit-coloured flag, still represents the Republic of Afghanistan and not the Taliban Regime.

Muzafar spoke strongly for women’s education and freedom which is restricted by the Taliban.

There are plenty more events in Canberra and the south.  They hope you can make it out to see them at one of their events in Victoria & South Australia.
 

Members of the team participating in this ride, are overwhelmed by the love and encouragement they have received and have asked you to consider joining the WhatsApp Group or Instagram to follow them. There’s been dancing, films, feasts, friends and plenty of riding!
 

NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE A DONATION.  DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE. HELP POWER THEM THROUGH TO ADELAIDE — SUPPORT THE RIDE HERE

Basic route information follows https://rideforeducation.com/route 

High Court challenge launched for man facing deportation to Nauru

Everybody deserves to live with dignity and fairness, regardless of visa status.But refugees and migrants are being singled out for harsher treatment by Australia’s cruel migration laws. The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) has filed proceedings in the High Court on behalf of one man. Please read the following article published by the HRLC.https://www.hrlc.org.au/updates/deportation-challenge/  2 April 2025

Skills recognition of Refugees

 An Australian Institute of Family Studies report tracking the long-term employment of refugees showed that almost half of all those previously working as managers and professionals are, 10 years later, still not working in those kinds of jobs in Australia. The study surveyed about 2,400 humanitarian migrants over a decade. The report recommended more coordinated recognition of skills and qualifications gained overseas, as well as inclusive recruitment practices and language support.

The persistent employment struggles of refugees’ (audio), SBS 11 June 2025Almost half of refugees suffering from ‘occupational downgrade’ 10 years after settling  ABC News 11 June 2025You may recall that Labor for Refugees ran a campaign last year re this issue and wrote to Federal and State Ministers about the urgent need to fast track skilled refugees.  The motion we asked our members to take to their branches to support, was circulated including the background information.   

The link to the motion follows

L4RNSW-ACTSkillsRecognitionRefugeesOct 24

It’s not too late to endorse this motion at your next branch meeting.  It can then be submitted to the next NSW ALP Conference as an agenda item.  Also to the next ACT Conference.

Hopefully, this report may ignite some interest from our politicians, and prompt them to address this issue which would benefit these refugees/migrants as well as our wider community.

Nizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW

email: 

 contact@labor4refugees.com 

Next L4R Meeting
Our October meeting takes place next Wednesday 23 October commencing at 6.30pm.

We held a successful and most informative meeting last month with our guest speaker Muzafar Ali, who is the Co-CEO of the Learning Centre in Indonesia, addressing our meeting. 

Muzafar reported in detail about the dire situation for refugees who are stuck in Indonesia – some for more that 12 years and some so desperate that they have suicided.  The situation has been made worse due to the fact that this year, the Australian Government stopped funding the UNHCR so these refugees are struggling even more, to survive financially. 

We came up with a number of strategies to try and encourage the Australian Government to meet it’s ALP Platform obligations to find a pathway to assist these refugees to come to Australia.  Supporting those who have skills and have received training in Indonesia, is one way of doing this by matching them with employers in Australia who are desperate for skilled workers.  For more details of what we discussed, please read our October minutes (using the link above).

Motion for skills recognition of refugees!!  

We recently called for support for the following motion, which asks the government to remove barriers, by using a new fast-track system of skills recognition for refugees.  The motion was supported by a number of branches.  That’s great news.  However, let’s try to increase that number by having more branches endorse it at their October//November meetings.This campaign was initiated after a refugee advocacy group in far North Queensland approached Labor for Refugees, asking for our support.  The group volunteers its services by sponsoring refugees but had regularly come up against a wall of government bureaucracy/delays when wanting to provide work for these refugees by utilising the skills of these refugees – skills that are much needed in our community.We need to make it easier for refugees living in our community, to contribute to the workforce as well as providing them with a much needed source of income.Once again, I urge you to take the following motion to your branch meeting and ask members to support it.

“Labor for Refugees NSW-ACT calls on the federal government to respond promptly and positively to the Billion Dollar Benefit campaign and to ensure that the government’s response includes a fast track program of skills recognition of displaced people in our community, so that they can qualify quickly to take on valuable work roles in our economy, and contribute to their own settlement and to Australian society.  L4R urges the government to ensure that this program –

      1.  includes within it, free, intense and supportive TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and
on-going support to match displaced people’s skills; 

       2.  includes, as part of the program, early contact with relevant professional and trade bodies to ensure they understand and are supportive of the fast track professional skills program, and early connections between participants and potential employers, and relevant professional and trade bodies.” BACKGROUND TO MOTION  L4RSkillsRecognitionBackgroundPaper8Oct24Further action:L4R will urge the government to extend and expand the TBB (Talent Beyond Boundaries) Skilled Refugee Labour Agreement Pilot program so that it can become one of the reliable permanent settlement pathways for refugees in Indonesia.Motion to be sent to: 

Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Tony Burke 

Tony.Burke.MP@aph.gov.au
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations of Australia Murray Watt senator.watt@aph.gov.au
Your FEC.

People with Disability in Immigration Detention

We proposed dealing with a motion a few months ago, details of which were sent to members in our September newsletter.  Our L4R member who wanted to move it at our meeting was unable to do so but will be attending our meeting next week.  If this motion is supported at our meeting, we will ask you to take it to your branch meeting and urge members to endorse it.
 

The motion with a detailed background follows RefugeesWithDisabilityMotionSep24

Good news for the Asylum Seekers Centre and for refugees!!

The Asylum Seekers Centre received a major funding boost from the NSW Government which was announced last Friday. Labor for Refugees NSW/ACT has always been a strong supporter of the Asylum Seekers Centre and from time to time, donated funds to the Centre as well as inviting its CEO Frances Rush to be a guest speaker at some of our events.The Centre will be able to expand primary care clinics and meet the increasingly complex health needs of some of Sydney’s most vulnerable residents, thanks to a grant of more than $1 million.Minister for Health Ryan Park announced funding of $1.07 million over three years for the Centre, which will help employ more clinical staff to manage the growing number of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the asylum seeker community.The funding will also help the Centre address the increasing need and cost of medicine for members of the community without access to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).The Asylum Seekers Centre is a not-for-profit organisation that was established in 1993 and offers practical and personal support to people seeking asylum. The Centre also provides primary healthcare services for people seeking asylum with limited Medicare eligibility through a specialist nurse-led health service with volunteer GPs and other specialists.

The Centre’s health service runs four GP clinics per week and has seen an 81 per cent increase in visits since June 2022. The complexity of visits has increased due to growing mental health presentations, an ageing population, and increased demand for pharmaceuticals, compounded by rising costs.

L4R is currently in negotiations with Frances Rush to be our keynote speaker at our Fringe Event, planned for our meeting date in November.  All the Fringe Events were cancelled at the July NSW Labor Conference.  We were promised that they would be rescheduled and they will now take the form of Zoom meetings.  NSW Labor will be promoting them once we confirm the details.

Watch this space!!!

Pride in Protest Campaign

Please see the letter below regarding an Indonesian transgender woman who has been detailed in Villawood. Pride in Protest is starting a campaign and seeks endorsement for the letter below. We were also asked to sign a petition.  We agreed to promote the campaign and sign the petition.

Dear Minister for Immigration, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Health and Assistant Minister for Health.

On your watch, as a direct result of racist profiling, the Federal Government has violated the human rights of Asian migrant women, resulting in transgender women being held in immigration detention, with their health needs being denied and at risk of transphobic violence. After losing work for an Australian company because of transphobic discrimination, an Indonesian transgender woman was profiled at the border, detained and continues to suffer mental, physical and sexual human rights abuses in detention.We are calling on the Federal Government to act now to restore dignity and safety to the transgender women in immigration detention, and ensure nobody else is put through the harm that too many others have been put through:1. End profiling and turning back of Asian women at the border.2. Dignity and safety for transgender people in immigration detention. Implement best standard health care protocols for trans people in detention, training for staff, fair access to hormones and other essential medical care, independent and transparent complaints process, and introduce routine external audits of detention conditions.3. End mandatory detention of people awaiting immigration decisions and outcomes.LGBTQIA+ and all asylum seekers should be supported to be housed in the community while awaiting immigration andvisa decisions. Close the detention centres, end offshore detention, and assess individuals from their location in thecommunity.

4. No deportations to danger. End the practice of deporting people seeking asylum.

Please consider taking this motion to your branch meeting and asking members to support it.

I hope we will see you at our meeting next week.

Nizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW

email: 

 contact@labor4refugees.com 

Next L4R Meeting

Our meeting takes place next Wednesday 26 March commencing at 6.30pm.

The Minutes of our previous meeting dated 18 February follow MinutesNSW-ACT26Feb25

Ride for Education

We are happy to welcome Muzafar Ali back to our meeting next week, to brief us on his planned marathon bike ride.You may recall that last year at our October meeting, Muzafar, who is the Co-CEO of the Cisarua Learning Centre in Indonesia, was our guest speaker.  He reported on the dire conditions facing refugees in Indonesia.This time, Muzafar will brief us on a journey he plans to make across Australia, to build refugee futures through education.Please join us to welcome Muzafar and find out why this inspirational man plans to go on this ride, what he hopes to do on his way and how he is progressing with his rigorous training in order to make this journey.

Labor for Refugees has made a substantial donation to this worthwhile cause.

 

If you’d like to know how to get involved, see Ride-For-Education Fundraising page

International Affairs Policy Committee – Election policy for migration with Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Department of ImmigrationMembers of Labor for Refugees are invited by the ACT Labor International Affairs Policy Committee, to attend the following Teams call on Thursday 7PM with Dr Abul Rizvi, to review policy this term and the election contest regarding migration policy.  We’re looking to cover the breadth of policy from asylum to international students to skilled migration.

It’s clear a strong migration program and policy progress are of importance to state and federal policy, as the NSW Treasurer and others have well noted in recent months. Abul is someone with unusual insights and experience, and it should be a very informative session.

When: 7pm, Thursday 20 March
Where: Online only – Microsoft Teams at this link.
 

Abul Rizvi is a leading voice on Australian migration policy, with vast experience and deep knowledge of the how the system has evolved and where reform is needed.He is formerly the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration, awarded the Public Service Medal and the Centenary Medal, and in his work there headed skilled migration reform.His expertise and insights are now more relevant than ever, and this session is a great opportunity to hear from him the week before the Budget and Budget-in-reply, and ahead of an election where this policy area will feature.

Discussion will cover all aspects of migration policy and adjacent policy, reviewing developments this term, emerging priorities and platforms to the election.

Palm Sunday Rally and MarchAs we do each year, Labor for Refugees has endorsed the Palm Sunday Rally.  This year, the organisers put out an appeal for funds so Labor for Refugees made a donation towards the cost of the rally.
 

Details of the rally and march are:Sunday April 13 at 2pm Belmore Park (near Central Railway Station). 

The march will proceed up Broadway to Victoria Park where it will disperse.

The themes this year will focus on the following  – 

Educate for PeacePermanent Visas for all refugeesWelcome Refugees – Unity not Racism

Climate Action not AUKUS Nuclear Subs

Speakers: 
Abishek Selvakumar (Tamil Refugee Association);Rev Rod Benson (NSW Ecumenical Council);Ruth Mitchell (International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons;Sara Haddad (Author);

Natasha Watt (NSW Teachers Federation)

Regards Nizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW email:   contact@labor4refugees.com

16 July 2025

The Minutes of our previous meeting dated 28 May follow MinutesNSW-ACT25Jun25

Urgent meeting sought with the Immigration MinisterWe wrote to Immigration Minister Tony Burke twice last year, in an effort to set up a meeting with him.  It’s important that we meet with the Minister to raise a number of urgent issues. We need to establish the timelines for when the government plans to implement the refugee policies that we fought for and won at the last Labor National Conference in 2023. We also ran a campaign last year, asking ALP branches to help us lobby the government to recognise the skills of refugees and remove some of the barriers that are preventing them from working in jobs where they are sorely needed.One of the important gains L4R made at the conference in 2023, was the government’s agreement to hold an inquiry into Immigration detention.   We are still waiting to learn when this will happen.There are many other problems that need to be addressed.  For example, in March this year, we wrote to the Minister about the need to address the plight of people with disabilities in Immigration Detention. In June we sent a letter to the Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite about the removal of Work Rights for those non-citizens who have (rightly) sought Ministerial Intervention. We are also very concerned about the refugees trapped in Indonesia who are trying to apply for visas to come to Australia. 

The Afghan refugees who escaped from the Taliban and fled to Iran are now in danger in Iran. Those who made it from Afghanistan to Pakistan are also facing danger because the Pakistani Government wants to deport them.

The list of priorities goes on.  Which is why we believe it is urgent to meet with Tony Burke and why, after the federal election, our L4R National Committee recently met to work out a plan of how we compile a list of issues that need to be raised with the Minister.

Watch this space.

Ride for Education – message from Muzafar 

Our ride is finished. 4,000kms, 46 events and thousands of friends both old and new! Thanks everyone.We have been touched deeply by the outpouring of love, community and connection we have felt over the last 5 weeks. Thousands of people came together to help us on our journey and we feel reconnected, energised and full of hope. We have raised nearly $140,000. More than we have ever raised before!  Our goal is $250,000 for one years education for over 3,000 refugees in Indonesia and Thailand, and women in Afghanistan. YOU CAN HELP!! 

Can you share this short video with any friends and family? 

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1096438762 

Or share the websites at 

rideforeducation.com and cisarualearning.com Thank you all. Can’t wait to see you again soon. Thank you for sharing our campaign. Sincerely

Muzafar & Jolyon & everyone at Cisarua Learning

Regards Nizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW email:   contact@labor4refugees.com

Catherine CrittendenNovember 14, 2024Uncategorized

November

L4R newsletter – keeping you informed and up to date on our current issues and challenges.

14 November 2024Dear Member FRINGE EVENT SPECIAL – ASYLUM MATTERS Our usual 27 November monthly meeting will be replaced by a L4R Fringe Event. This will be the last time we meet in 2024.Our Labor for Refugees Fringe Event was meant to take place at the NSW Labor Conference earlier this year.  However, the Fringe Events were cancelled by NSW Labor with a promise that they would take place at a later time.  Our Fringe Event is now being held online at 6.30pm on Wednesday 27 November 2024.  We are very lucky that the same guests invited to our original Fringe Event, are still available. They are:Dr Graham Thom, international refugee specialistFrances Rush OAM, Asylum Seekers Centre CEOThouraya Lahmadi, refugee and writerIn this session, our guests will unpack the trends, insights, and experiences that must shape refugee policy in Australia. From exploring the High Court’s ruling on immigration detention to highlighting the stark reality for a person seeking safety without a safety net, this session will highlight what we must do in order to provide protection for those who need it. The link to the leaflet follows L4RFringeEvent27Nov25  Please rsvp by clicking the following link and complete the form https://6b2swhmjz0t.typeform.com/to/xiSs6QXO The Zoom link to our event will be sent to you prior to 27 November.  I hope to see you at our Fringe Event on the 27 November.RegardsNizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW email:  contact@labor4refugees.com

| forward to a friend |Copyright © 2024 Labor for Refugees (NSW), All rights reserved.You are receiving this email because you indicated you wished to be active in L4R.  Our mailing address is:Labor for Refugees (NSW)Bellevue HillSydney, NSW 2023Australia Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Our usual 27 November monthly meeting will be replaced by a L4R Fringe Event.
This will be the last time we meet in 2024.Our Labor for Refugees Fringe Event was meant to take place at the NSW Labor Conference earlier this year.  However, the Fringe Events were cancelled by NSW Labor with a promise that they would take place at a later time.
 
Our Fringe Event is now being held online at 6.30pm on Wednesday 27 November 2024.

We are very lucky that the same guests invited to our original Fringe Event, are still available.

They are:

• Dr Graham Thom, international refugee specialist
• Frances Rush OAM, Asylum Seekers Centre CEO
• Thouraya Lahmadi, refugee and writer

In this session, our guests will unpack the trends, insights, and experiences that must shape refugee policy in Australia.From exploring the High Court’s ruling on immigration detention to highlighting the stark reality for a person seeking safety without a safety net, this session will highlight what we must do in order to provide protection for those who need it.

The link to the leaflet follows 

L4RFringeEvent27Nov25
 

Please rsvp by clicking the following link and complete the form https://6b2swhmjz0t.typeform.com/to/xiSs6QXO 

The Zoom link to our event will be sent to you prior to 27 November.

I hope to see you at our Fringe Event on the 27 November.

Regards Nizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW email:   contact@labor4refugees.com

Next L4R Meeting
I hope you had a good break over the festive season. Unfortunately, we have now had to return to the reality of a depressing world filled with a lot of ugliness and suffering. 

I find the best way to deal with feelings of despondency, is to get active and work with like-minded people to try and address some of these challenging issues over which we have some control.

The federal election will be upon us very soon and as disillusioned as some of us feel about some of the Labor Government’s policies, it would be a tragedy if the Coalition headed by Peter Dutton, formed government.  We cannot afford to allow the Coalition to win.  It was difficult enough trying to unscramble the mess that the Coalition left for Labor to fix when Labor formed Government.  A decade of retrograde policies.  Imagine if we had to go through that again!

Asylum Matters

The minutes for October 2024, were sent to you last year, with our notice for our Fringe Event special meeting called “Asylum Matters”.  This event took place on the 27 November 2024, in lieu of our normal monthly meeting. Thirty people attended the November special Fringe Event to view the presentations made by our three guest speakers.They were Frances Rush OAM, CEO of the Asylum Seekers Centre, Dr Graham Thom, international refugee specialist (now working for the Refugee Council of Australia) and Thouraya Lahmadi, refugee and writer. They unpacked the trends, insights and experiences that they believed must shape refugee policy in Australia.  They also explored the High Court’s ruling on immigration detention and highlighted the stark reality for a person seeking safety without a safety net.  The session highlighted what we must do in order to provide protection for those who need it.

Plenty of time was put aside at the end of the presentations, to accommodate questions from members.

People with Disability in Immigration Detention 

At our October meeting 2024, we discussed a motion re people with disability in Immigration Detention who had greater than usual challenges confronting them.  The motion urged the government to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.  On the 2 November, 2024, we wrote to Immigration Minister Tony Burke as well as to three other key Federal Ministers (Giles, Rishworth and Shorten), and to the Australia & the World Policy Committee (Int Affairs Policy C’tee in the ACT), requesting their support.

Please read our letter here PeoplewithDisabilityinImmigDetentionL4Rmotion2Nov24 and the response received on the 27 November 2024 from Immigration Minister Tony Burke herePeoplewithDisabilityinImmigrationDetnResponsefromMinBurke27Nov24

Photo Exhibition on AfghanistanWe held a successful meeting in September last year with guest speaker Muzafar Ali, who is the Co-CEO of the Cisarua Learning Centre in Indonesia.  Muzafar updated us about the dire situation for refugees in Indonesia and spoke about finding pathways for trained refugees stuck in Indonesia. Muzafar is also a Hazara photographer from Afghanistan.  He has made films on Afghans in Australia and Indonesia. You may have seen the film on the school in Cisarua “The Staging Post”.There is a new photographic exhibition by Muzafar at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Nowra which runs from 15 February until the 8 March.   He secretly returned to his homeland to photograph the realities of daily life under the Taliban. Since the Taliban captured Afghanistan in 2021 girls have been banned from high school education along with many other restrictions. This exhibition includes images of the underground schools where girls are risking their lives to get an education. Here is the link https://www.shoalhavenregionalgallery.com.au/Whats-on/Exhibitions/Finding-Hope-in-Afghanistan

I hope you can make it to the exhibition.

I also hope we will see you at our meeting next week.

Regards Nizza SianoSecretary L4R NSW email:   contact@labor4refugees.com

Catherine CrittendenOctober 9, 2022Uncategorized

Progress so far

Labor in government – from 21 May 2022

5 August 2022   The ‘Biloela family’ settled in Biloela, Queensland

29 October 2022  Australian women and children begin to be repatriated from Al Hawl and al-Roj camps in  Northern Syria

13 February 2023 Abolition of TPVs and SHEVs

January 2024 Establishment of the Refugee Advisory Panel

Copies to be sent to Tony Burke, Ged Kearney and Josh Burns,

Anthony Albanese

Prime Minister

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600

3 December 2024

Dear Anthony

I first joined the Labor Party in 1956 just after Labor’s split but the bills passed in Parliament last week represent for me the most disappointing moment in Labor history.

In August 1945, Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell approved a scheme for Holocaust survivors to be sponsored to Australia

Under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution;

You would no doubt be aware that Labor’s Dr Evatt played a significant role in the formation of the United Nations (UN) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and was influential in the creation of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

I refer you also to  Michelle Bachelet who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022.

Michelle Bachelet, said that the newly concluded global compact on migration could help countries co-operate on migration and would protect the rights of some of the world’s most vulnerable. She said, ‘Australia, has suggested it might withdraw from the Compact, should join the consensus of the global community, adopt the compact and revise the country’s policies with respect to people arriving at its borders without a visa.’ Her fiercest criticism was reserved for Australia’s offshore immigration regime, on the remote islands of  Nauru and Manus in Papua New Guinea. ‘The current offshore processing centres are an affront to the protection of human rights’, Bachelet said.

Sincerely

Robin Rothfield

Former National Convenor,

Labor for Refugees.