The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) and the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) have signed a cooperation agreement establishing institutional support for the integration of third country nationals into the Croatian society and their easier employment, HUP said in a press release on Wednesday.

“In recent years, we have been witnessing increased migration to EU countries, which has strong consequences both for the Republic of Croatia and surrounding countries. Through active cooperation, HUP and the Jesuit Refugee Service want to encourage the development of positive aspects of this phenomenon,” the press release said.

Employers stress that employment is one the most important aspects of quality integration into any society.

According to them, in this crisis employers are also faced with a shortage of workers in certain occupations for which there is no interest among domestic workers.

Therefore, they said, the agreement opened up a possibility for cooperation between HUP and the JRS in that area as well.

Employers say that there have been many cases of successful employment of migrants so far, and some of them will be presented at a conference that HUP and the Jesuit Refugee Service plan to organise at the beginning of next year.

HUP director general Damir Zoric said that only successful integration could make migration a real opportunity for everyone — citizens, employers and the entire society.

It is important, he said, to build a successful system for integration (administrative, educational, logistical and psychosocial) in order to prevent possible negative aspects of migration.

The JRS director for Southeast Europe, Stanko Perica, said that the Jesuit service in Croatia had a lot of experience in providing support, education and integration of foreign nationals into the society and the labour market.

He also said that more than a hundred people had taken part in their retraining and employment programmes and that many of them had found jobs and their employers were very satisfied.