Anass Mousa worked for 15 years as a printer in Syria before war turned him into a refugee. He landed in Croatia, finding a job with the country’s oldest printing house and helping the company face a severe labour shortage.
Grafički Zavod Hrvatske (Croatian Graphics Institute), is employing a small group of refugees needing jobs in a win-win arrangement that could be a blueprint for social integration and a partial solution to Croatia’s labour shortage. Domagoj Zeba is their executive director of production at the print works, which among other texts prints books for schools. When the refugee crisis unfolded in 2015, he watched it all on television. He recalled the experience of war in the Balkans in the 1990s and wanted to help.
Zeba’s altruism has aligned with the commercial needs of his company. New EU member Croatia has suffered a drain of its own skilled workforce and has a severe labour shortage. At the Croatian Graphics Institute, Zeba also faced a shortage of skilled job candidates. He had up to five refugees working there, but two have since left, leaving three including Anass. He says he could fill 10 vacancies and is still open to hiring more refugees and wants people interested in long-term positions who can progress in their field.
The Croatian Employers’ Association advocates speeding up the system whereby asylum seekers must wait nine months before they can start working, arguing that integration can start much earlier~UNHCR
