Around 4,000 Ukrainian residents have made their way to Luxembourg since the start of the Russian invasion, in the hopes of escaping the war. Sharing an open call by the national reception office (ONA) to the service industry, the Horesca federation has asked hotels and accommodation establishments to open their unused spaces to hosting refugees.

Any business interested in helping in a “concrete manner” . According to the statement, “wanted are ideally fully provided facilities, but also annexes or single rooms can be provided.”

Contacted by Delano, a spokesperson of the federation said that “a whole series of hotels immediately contacted us, and put a whole number of rooms at the disposition of the group, or, for those who have an annex to their building, who offered the entire building.” However, they could not give the entire number of rooms available as some hotels directly contacted the ONA.

Luxembourg has witnessed several waves of solidarity since the start of the Ukraine invasion. On 28 March, prime minister Xavier Bettel confirmed that the grand ducal family has also . Luxembourg’s Post, for instance, is providing authorities with properties to help accommodate Ukrainians, among other initiatives.

When it came to the costs of the rooms, an agreement was found with each business, though Horesca could not indicate more details. “Other businesses contacted us to privately host refugees,” they added, “those asked nothing and did it out of pure generosity.” According to the spokesperson, each hotel that offers up rooms has access to a mediator who would clarify the details of such an agreement.

Foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn (LSAP) in an with Delano’s sister publication Paperjam had said that hotels could only be a temporary solutions, as the tourist season would soon arrive. Housing refugees from Ukraine is a challenge for Luxembourg as the country’s existing asylum shelters are mostly at capacity and the government is searching for suitable facilities together with communes.