Spanish scheme to connect Ukrainian refugees with hospitality jobs

Spain has launched a scheme to connect Ukrainian refugees with job opportunities in hotels and other holiday accommodation.

Hospitality bodies in Spain have made a job platform translated into Ukrainian available to refugees to connect them with employers.

Jorge Marichal, president of the Confederacion Espanola de Hoteles Y Alojamientos Turisticos, said: “Tourism is, to a large extent, its workers and we are constantly looking for committed and motivated people to be part of our teams.

“The Ukrainian people have amply demonstrated their unity, resistance and commitment. With the outbreak of the conflict, hoteliers began to mobilise to make beds available to those displaced by the war.

“We want to continue supporting those affected by the war in these difficult times, so we are taking a further step by bringing the job offer in the Spanish hotel sector closer to them, since many of those who come intend to integrate into our society by contributing their knowledge and contributing to the challenge of continuous improvement in the tourism sector.”

The Spanish scheme is similar to that chef Steven Saunders, of the Willow Tree in Bourn, Cambridge, has been lobbying the government to introduce.

The chef launched the Odessa Project aimed at connecting refugees with hospitality businesses wanting to offer accommodation and employment shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

By the end of March Saunders said 1,750 hotels, including national chains, had requested to join the project, offering accommodation for 3,000 to 4,000 people.

In response to the launching of the scheme in Spain he said: “Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine should have meant that government reacted more quickly and more sympathetically to this emergency.

“I am seriously upset that I cannot bring in Ukrainian hospitality staff who want and need jobs. I have over 2,000 hotels sponsoring me, among them the biggest and most luxurious in the world. All of them have HR, which offers support and welfare for the refugees and their families. The [British] government’s own scheme cannot compete with ours.”