Official figures: About 10 000 Ukrainians left Bulgaria in recent days
Close to 10 000 Ukrainians have left Bulgaria in the past few days, going by updated figures on the Bulgarian government’s information portal on June 1.
On May 29, the portal said that 90 365 Ukrainians who had fled Russia’s war on their country remained in Bulgaria. The most recent update, on June 1, showed the figure as 80 655.
Between the two dates, the number of Ukrainians granted temporary protection status in Bulgaria was stated as unchanged: 110 616.
The trend of Ukrainians leaving Bulgaria began with the approach of the end of the 40 leva per person per day state support scheme for hotels accommodating Ukrainians refugees.
The trend accelerated in the final days of May and the beginning of June, as thousands of Ukrainians withdrew from the Bulgarian government’s scheme to relocate them to state facilities and hotels to be paid a much lower rate of financial support.
Tensions and chaos have attended current attempts at dealing with the relocation.
Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova, who chairs the operational headquarters on the Ukrainians who have temporary protection, has come under fire from several quarters for her handling of the situation and the language she used in announcing the cancellation of the first version of the relocation scheme.
Konstantinova is due for a hearing in Parliament on June 2 on the Ukrainian refugee situation in Bulgaria.
Separately, Romania’s Pro TV, citing Romanian Border Police data, said that in just one day, May 31, about 1300 Ukrainians crossed the border from Bulgaria into Romania.
Some of those leaving Bulgaria were travelling on rented buses with Ukrainian registrations numbers and probably their final destination was Ukraine, the report said.
(Photo: John Nyberg/sxc.hu)
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