site.btaNew System for Ukraine Refugee Reception Becomes Operational in Bulgaria on Monday - Wrap-up

A new system for granting temporary protection to people fleeing the Ukraine war, will become operational in Bulgaria on Monday. That transpired Saturday at the first news briefing of a new crisis coordination unit with the government, which plans and organizes actions by the state institutions helping arrivals from Ukraine. 

The system will also cover the transportation, accommodation and employment of people from Ukraine.

All these aspects of the process will be handled by the six workgroups that comprise the coordination unit: for border control, temporary protection, transport, accommodation, social issues, employment and public information, and that will seek comprehensive solutions. The coordinating unit is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova.

Since February 24, 69,735 people have entered Bulgaria after fleeing the Ukraine war and 33,516 remained, a third of them children, Konstantinova said.

Valeri Rachev, an advisor to the Prime Minister and member of the crisis coordination group, said that Bulgaria needs to change the model for providing temporary protection. After the people from Ukraine cross into Bulgaria, they will be directed to go to reception centres where documents will be immediately issued to those asking temporary protection. Arrangements are being made for coordinating the transportation, accommodation and employment of these people. Six consuls have been sent to the Ukraine’s border with Moldova and Romania to gather preliminary information about the expected arrivals in Bulgaria. Transportation will be provided by 12 buses of the Defence Ministry, private bus operators and the local authorities are also involved, said Rachev.

The accommodation system includes primarily privately owned hotels but the government is also preparing accommodation facilities owned by the state institutions. The hotels have a total capacity of 40,000 people, said Rachev.

Some of the people who have arrived from Ukraine, made their own accommodation arrangements, staying with relatives or friends, or booking their own hotel. Some 2,500 have booked hotels and another 1,100 have been put up in state or municipal facilities.

The EU expects between 2.5 and 6.5 million people to flee Ukraine, and the UN expects their number to be 4.5 million.

He repeated several times that it is important to have utmost mobilization of resources on regional and municipal level: state institutions, volunteers and NGOs. He said that it is the way to prevent a critical situation where people fleeing the Ukraine war will have to sleep in bus and train stations, or in tents set up in the mud.

Rachev said that the aim is to “control the situation for three months ahead” and prepare for a large wave of people and handle it “in an intelligent way”.

Commenting the financial aspects of these arrangements, Konstantinova said that the EU is considering supporting the countries that take in refugees from Ukraine but before a decision is made the local authorities will have to rely on their own resources. She said that municipalities have crisis management plans and have to activate them.

All who have already arrived can apply for temporary protection from the police departments

The coordination unit also said that all citizens of Ukraine who have already arrived in Bulgaria can apply for temporary protection from the police departments,

Beginning next week, the coordination unit will start working on the social problems, health care and employment of Ukraine refugees. Close to 80 per cent of them have declared a wish to work, said the coordination unit.

Together with organizations of volunteers, they are opening a Ukrainian-language hot line (that can be reached at +359 2 9055555 and +380322465075).