Bulgaria govt provides shopping vouchers worth 100 leva to Ukrainian refugees
Bulgaria govt provides shopping vouchers worth 100 leva to Ukrainian refugees

Sofia, Bulgaria: Bulgarian government is assisting the Ukrainian refugees by providing them with 100 leva (about 51.1 euro) shopping vouchers. The announcement was made by the Bulgarian Minister of Labour and Social Policy – Georgi Gyokov, on Friday, March 25. The funding of these vouchers is being given by the European programmes. 

The social assistance directorate is the one who will issue the vouchers to the Ukrainian nationals who fled the country amid the Russian military invasion. Till now, 6000 Ukrainian refugees have been granted temporary protection. 

The Minister, while making the announcement, added that one could utilise these vouchers to purchase necessary and day to day items such as – food, baby food, baby clothes, school supplies, hygiene materials and other essentials.  

He then asserted, “In some 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 the social workers.”  

Number of Ukrainian nationals who fled the country – 

In the parliament, the Minister provided information on the number of Ukrainian nationals who arrived in Bulgaria. As per his statics, till March 21, a total of 108 662 Ukrainian nationals entered the border of Bulgaria, of which nearly 50 768 remained in the European country. 

He then added that on March 23, 2022, a total of 3182 Ukrainian refugees entered Bulgaria, of which a total of 1697 nationals chose to remain in the European nation. 

Meanwhile, on March 24, 2022, Thursday, there were a total of 113 000 Ukrainian nationals who entered the borders of Bulgaria, as per the data shared by Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova. Out of this number, there are a total of 60 000 who are in the European nation, one-third of which are children.