Refugee jobs warning

The chief executive of a London-headquartered food giant has said efforts to employ refugees in Britain have hit a brick wall.

Unilever chief executive Paul Polman said the falling European population was creating a skills shortage which could be filled by those languishing in the mammoth Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan in an economic boost like that which rebuilt the continent after the Second World War.

He said: “Why don’t we have a Marshall-type plan around refugees or immigration? We could easily put companies together in Europe to close that camp and give these 15,000 families work,” he said. “I tried to do that in the UK and politically it just ran against a brick wall.”

He added: “You need more courageous politicians that are willing to do this because it comes at a personal risk, there is no question about that.”