Amazon, Hilton and Starbucks to hire thousands of refugees across Europe

Amazon has pledged to hire at least 5,000 refugees across Europe over the next three years as part of a new drive by dozens of companies to help recruit people fleeing war in Ukraine and other crisis-stricken regions.

The tech giant’s commitment is the largest among more than 40 companies including Hilton, Marriott, ISS and Starbucks, which together said that they would hire more than 13,000 refugees.

The announcements were made at an event in Paris on Monday organised by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a non-profit group founded by Hamdi Ulukaya, chief executive of US food company Chobani.

The move, ahead of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, forms part of the growing movement towards corporate social responsibility initiatives, as activist shareholders demand companies take measures that can support wider societal goals.

“One thing we believe at Amazon is diversity of employment makes us a stronger company,” said Ofori Agboka, Amazon’s vice-president of people experience and technology.

Alongside Amazon, staffing agencies Adecco, ManpowerGroup and Randstad said they would help 152,000 refugees find work, while Accenture, Generali and Indeed will help to train another 86,000 displaced people.

Welcoming the effort, Margaritis Schinas, vice-president of the European Commission, said: “The opening of the EU’s borders to Ukrainians over a year ago showed Europe at its best. However, one year on [from Russia’s invasion], far too many refugees remain unemployed, despite our endemic skills shortages, their high levels of education, desire to earn a living and legal right to work.”

Millions of Ukrainians are now living in Europe, forming part of a global refugee crisis that the UN estimates has displaced more than 110mn people from conflicts and persecution in regions including Sudan, Syria, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.

Amazon, which employs more than 200,000 people across Europe, is partnering with Tent to offer support with immigration and legal fees, mentoring and training. It will help new employees to learn local languages through a combination of automated translation technology and local liaisons, to overcome what Agboka described as one of the biggest challenges in integrating displaced people.

The “vast majority” of roles would be in its retail operations, including fulfilment and distribution, with “eligibility to move into jobs that are in different levels of the organisation that are commensurate with their skills and abilities”, Agboka said.

The company will also provide IT-related training for 10,000 Ukrainians globally through its Amazon Web Services arm.

Amazon’s European initiative follows a previous commitment launched in September in the US to hire 5,000 refugees by the end of next year. Agboka said Amazon was receiving applications from refugees from Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria and Turkey.

“We’re hoping that number grows,” he added.