Ahead of World Refugee Day dozens of multinational companies have vowed to hire refugees from across Europe including more than 13,000 refugees from Ukraine over the next three years, on Monday (June 18). The pledge was made at a business summit in Paris organised by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a global business coalition of over 300 companies.
Employment for refugees in Europe
A day before World Refugee Day, 41 companies including Amazon, Marriott, Accenture, Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft and so on, have said they would hire, connect to work or train a total of 250,000 refugees out of which 13,680 would be getting jobs directly in those companies.
The pledges made on Monday amount to the single largest batch of commitments made in the history of the Tent Partnership for Refugees since it was founded back in 2016, reported CNN.
Kelly Clements, United Nations deputy high commissioner for refugees, on Monday said, “Every number is a story of an individual family who left everything, seeking safety, seeking protection and wanting to be able to rebuild as quickly as possible.”
She added, “So the commitments that businesses are going to make on Monday are absolutely essential.” According to the UN official, 110 million people have been displaced across the world out of which an estimated 12 million are from Ukraine and more than half of them live in Europe.
The event in Paris was organised by Tent Partnership for Refugees which is a nonprofit founded by Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya which connects businesses and refugees. Notably, the group’s first summit was held last year in the United States and witnessed pledges to hire 22,725 refugees.
Which companies have joined the pledge?
The biggest pledge, on Monday, was made by Amazon which has vowed to hire at least 5,000 refugees in Europe over the next three years. This would be followed by Marriott and Hilton with 1,500 each, Starbucks and ISS with 1,000 each, reported the Associated Press. Meanwhile, brands like Adidas, L’Oreal, PepsiCo, Hyatt, and so on have made smaller commitments.
“This is good for us as a company because the opportunity to add diversity to our workforce will continue to make us a stronger company,” said Amazon Vice President overseeing human resources, Ofori Agboka, as quoted by AP.
He added that many of these jobs would be hourly roles at fulfilment and storage centres and in transport and delivery. This comes after the company announced mass layoffs and fired thousands of employees late last year. However, Agboka said that the job cuts primarily affected salaried office jobs.
Similarly, Marriott also said their jobs will predominantly be hourly positions like housekeepers, kitchen staff and front desk attendants. Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano said, “We’re seeing record levels of demand for our properties across many markets here in Europe,” adding that the company is “hiring aggressively” to meet the rising demand, reported AP.
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