Canada’s meat industry has put its hand up and asked for Syrian refugees to boost its workforce, according to news service iPolitics.

Speaking about the country’s plan to resettle 25,000 refugees by March, Canada Meat Council executive director Jim Laws said this week he thought full-time, permanent employment was key to successful resettlement and the industry was committed to helping facilitate that resettlement.

The Canadian meat industry, Laws said, will seek out assistance such as appropriate language training, housing and schooling for refugees.

He also said the industry was desperately short of workers, with 1,000 vacancies across meat plants at any one time and not enough Canadians willing to accept offers from plants in small towns or rural areas.