site.btaUkrainians in Bulgaria Increase by 2,000 - 2,500 Daily

As of 7 a.m. on March 17, a total of 90,345 Ukrainian citizens have entered Bulgaria, of whom 42,460 have remained in this country. On average, this means that every day some 2,000 to 2,500 Ukrainians enter and remain in Bulgaria, the head of the crisis management task force of the Council of Ministers focused on the war in Ukraine, Colonel Valeri Rachev, told the National Assembly Committee on Tourism here on Thursday.

Most of the Ukrainian refugees arrived in Bulgaria by using privately arranged connections. Others fled using the buses provided by the Defence Ministry. Those buses transported people who somehow managed to get to the Ukrainian-Moldovan and the Ukrainian-Romanian borders, Rachev said.

Varna (on the Black Sea coast) is the busiest region, having the most refugees, followed by Burgas (also on the Black Sea), Rachev stressed.

All countries handle the Ukrainian refugee crisis on the go as they do not have a specific framework to follow in such situations, Rachev stated. The officials rely on broad public-private partnerships for all activities, except for border-crossings and the issuing of temporary protection documents, he said.

A package of regulatory amendments regarding refugees is being prepared, Rachev added. On March 10, the Council of Ministers made a decision to introduce the temporary protection procedure, he recalled, adding that the Government will adopt two more decisions in order to make the temporary protection a fully operational procedure.