The plight of thousands of people drowning in the Mediterranean in a desperate attempt to find asylum in Europe is currently on everybody’s mind. While the European Union is struggling to find the delicate balance between providing humanitarian aid to populations fleeing hell while not appearing to encourage the flow of refugees to its land, a social enterprise in Vienna is making a stand for solutions. The new Magdas Hotel hosts and employs refugees from 11 countries including Syria, Iran and Afghanistan, with a view to fostering contacts and genuine communication between them and the hotel’s guests so all can learn from each other. The hotel “is not about problems anymore, it’s about (…) how you can enable people to work and enable people to be part of society,” says Martin Gartner from Caritas, the Viennese nonprofit that launched the hotel. NGOs in other European cities already have their eyes on the project.
Vienna's boutique hotel offers view over refugees’ lives
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