A new opportunity to reinforce the connection between Bulgarian employers and people from third countries on the labour market in Bulgaria
The President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Tsvetan Simeonov held a meeting with the team of the Foundation for Access to Rights (FAR). The main topic of the discussion comprised the possibilities for supporting the connection between Bulgarian employers and refugees, along with people from third countries within the labour market.
Against a background of a deepening workforce crisis, which threatens the normal functioning of many Bulgarian companies, Simeonov talked with Valeria Ilarieva, Chairperson, and Maria Netsova, Coordinator of the Foundation for Access to Rights. The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry tries to respond to the challenges, faced by the businesses in Bulgaria when they are searching for qualified and suitable employees. In this respect, several projects have been implemented under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund – IMMIJOBS, RIDE and ERIAS. Efforts also continue to be made in the direction of expanding the options to hire foreigners and people from third countries in Bulgaria.
The FAR colleagues presented an innovative job employment platform, created in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency. It provides an opportunity to connect refugees and migrants with employers. The platform was officially launched at the end of February 2024 and is available in 7 languages (Bulgarian, English, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Pashto and Farsi). It publishes job advertisements and articles on various topics with useful information related to the employment rights of refugees and migrants.
The Foundation for Access to Rights (FAR) maintains a database of refugees and migrants, who are actively looking for job, and employers. By now, about 450 foreigners have declared that they are looking for work in our country. Some of them are highly qualified and others have different kinds of competences and experience. The main countries of their origin are Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan, and many of the refugees, apart from their mother tongues, speak also English, Russian and Turkish.
FAR has a licence for an Employment agent. Funding the activities on the employment platform is provided by the UN Refugee Agency, that’s why employers do not owe any fees for the find-a-job agency of FAR. Employers can advertise job vacancies by filling in a Form on the employment platform in the "Post a job" section. What follows is that FAR comes into contact with them with the purpose of signing an Agency Contract. Then Job postings are published on the FAR website and in the FAR social media channels. The Foundation moderates groups of refugee communities in this country in four languages – Ukrainian, Russian, Pashto and Arabic, which it also uses to disseminate job advertisements, posted by the employers.
An active cooperation between BCCI and FAR was agreed.
You can find more information in an article, intended for employers: "How to employ refugees at work?", in a short video introduction and in a presentation.
Contact person: Maria Netsova, Foundation for Access to Rights, www.farbg.eu https://www.refugeelight.bg https://www.statelessness.bg, tel.: +359884456162, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farbg.eu.