On June 19, at the TENT European Business Summit in Paris, on the eve of World Refugee Day, a group of 41 multinational corporations made pledges to provide 250,000 refugees from Ukraine and other countries with employment and training in various European countries.
EWL Group, as the only company with Polish capital participating in the summit, pledged to support at least 35,000 Ukrainian refugees in their search for work over the next three years – focusing on markets in Poland, but also in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Lithuania.
“Poland has been very successful not only in the area of aid activities, but also in the labor activation of Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war.”
– Andrzej Korkus, president of EWL Group, said during the Paris summit.
“Our company, with its customized technology solutions, helped find jobs for 12,000 Ukrainian refugees after the outbreak of war by December 2022. Together we can make much more progress. We are dedicated to supporting global mobility. We believe that safe and legal work benefits the entire free global community.”
– Andrzej Korkus said.
Among the global brands that have pledged to hire refugees over the next three years in European countries are. Amazon, Hilton, Marriott International, ISS, as well as Teleperformance, Accenture, Adidas, Blackstone, bp, Duni Group, ESS Group, FCC Medio Ambiente, Hempel, Hyatt, Ipsos, KFC, Kyndryl, L’Oréal Group, Menzies Aviation, Novartis, PepsiCo, Pfizer, QSRP, Starbucks EMEA, Suez, The Body Shop and The Kraft Heinz Company.
A number of companies, including Accenture, Generali, Microsoft, Cisco, Unilever and Indeed, have pledged to train more than 86,000 refugees to help them develop marketable skills, as well as to support better knowledge of the European labor market.
According to Margaritis Schinas, Vice President of the European Commission, who attended the TENT Summit, the unprecedented support from companies across the continent will be crucial in enabling tens of thousands of Ukrainians to support themselves and their loved ones in Ukraine.
“With no end in sight to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and with the European Union hosting millions of Ukrainians – it is imperative that refugees are offered long-term integration and hope by supporting their access to employment.”
– Margaritis Schinas said during his opening speech at the conferences.
In turn, international employment agencies, and in addition to EWL Group, Adecco, Randstad and ManpowerGroup, have collectively pledged to help more than 150,000 refugees find jobs.
The motto of Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and chairman of the TENT Partnership for Refugees, is that once a refugee finds a job, he ceases to be a refugee.
“I am very proud of the fact that the companies taking the initiative today will help more than 250,000 refugees from Ukraine and other countries in Europe get back on their feet and give them a chance to live in dignity.”
– Hamdi Ulukaya said.
In light of record pan-European commitments with an eye toward the economic integration of refugees, TENT will seek to support even more companies in the region in finding talent among refugees, on a large scale – especially in Poland, which hosts the largest population of refugees from Ukraine (1.5 million). To this end, support was also announced from Google.org, which will use Google’s resources and technological expertise to connect companies with Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
