site.btaGovernment Extends Time Limit for Temporary Protection until April 15, 2022

Bulgaria's Council of Ministers Wednesday extended until April 15 the time limit by which foreign nationals or stateless persons, who have left Ukraine as a result of the hostilities and who have entered and stay in Bulgarian territory, can obtain temporary protection even without expressly applying and registering for such a status, the Government Information Service reported.

In this way, both people who have not yet been granted temporary protection and hotels that accommodate them can rest assured that they will get financial support from the State.

Over the last four days alone, 40 new centres have been opened for temporary protection registration of people fleeing the war in Ukraine. They are now served at a total of 130 operational work stations in 67 locations in 56 settlements. In addition, 25 mobile teams have been trained to visit the places with the largest concentration of refugees and will issue temporary protection registration cards on site.

By 8:30 a.m. on March 30, a total of 23,005 persons were registered for temporary protection, accounting for 39 per cent of the Ukrainian refugees who remain in Bulgaria.

Interviewed on bTV on Wednesday morning, State Agency for Refugees Chair Mariana Tosheva quoted Border Police figures according to which 127,616 Ukrainians have entered Bulgaria since the start of the conflict and 58,723 of them remain in the country.

Tosheva specified that, just as in the rest of the EU, temporary protection entitles those who obtain it to accommodation and medical services.