Bulgaria to give 100 leva vouchers to Ukrainians with temporary protection status
The Bulgarian state will provide 100 leva (about 51.1 euro) shopping vouchers to Ukrainians who have temporary protection status, Minister of Labour and Social Policy Georgi Gyokov said during Question Time in Parliament on March 25.
The funds will come from European programmes and the vouchers will be issued by the social assistance directorate.
The possibility of issuing the vouchers at initial reception points is being discussed, Gyokov said.
He said that the vouchers could be used in shops to buy food, baby food, baby clothes, school supplies, hygiene materials and other essentials.
“In justified cases, additional vouchers can be obtained after assessing the needs and assessing complex circumstances, such as age, health or other, which prevents them from meeting basic living needs. The assessment is made by social workers,” Gyokov said.
He said that initial estimates were that funds coming under the REACT-EU instrument would make it possible to provide vouchers to about 50 000 refugees from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Gyokov told Parliament that between February 24 and March 21, a total of 108 662 people fleeing the war in Ukraine had entered Bulgaria.
A total of 50 768 had remained in Bulgaria.
On March 23, a total of 3182 Ukrainians entered Bulgaria, of whom 1697 remained in the country.
On March 24, Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova told Bulgarian news agency BTA that more than 113 000 people from Ukraine had entered Bulgaria and about 60 000 remained, about a third of them children.
Temporary protection had been granted to about 6000 so far, Konstantinova said.
(Photo: H Assaf/freeimages.com)
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, please click here.
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the orange button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com:
