Bulgaria extends accommodation scheme for Ukrainian refugees to February 2023
Bulgaria’s caretaker government has extended the accommodation scheme for Ukrainian refugees until February 24 2023, the government information service said.
This means an extension of the state-supported system of accommodating Ukrainian refugees in hotels, although new arrivals in Bulgaria will be accommodated only in state and municipal accommodation, according to the statement.
The statement said that facilities covered by the scheme included property of the state, municipalities or public enterprises and accommodation registered in the national tourist register.
It said that payments would be made for accommodating Ukrainian refugees in places recorded in the national tourist register on condition that they had been there as of October 31 and had remained there in the period from November 1 to 15, and would remain there from November 16 to February 24.
The state will pay 15 leva excluding value-added tax per day for accommodation in categorised places and 18 leva excluding VAT for uncategorised places. The state will cover the payment of VAT.
The November 16 decision by the caretaker government is a change from its October 31 decision to move Ukrainian refugees from hotels to state and municipal accommodation, with the latter decision having caused protests by Ukrainians and hoteliers.
According to the Bulgarian government’s dedicated portal on Ukrainians who fled to Bulgaria after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of their country, a total of 889 121 Ukrainians had arrived in Bulgaria, and 52 381 remained.
The portal gave the number of children as 51 811.
Bulgaria has granted temporary protection status to 145 759 people. The report said that 10 175 were accommodated under the scheme.
(Photo: Just4You/freeimages.com)
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