Bulgaria suspends integration plan for resettlement of Ukrainian refugees in departmental bases in the country. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova. It will be recalled that from June 1, Ukrainian refugees who were previously accommodated free of charge in coastal hotels in Bulgaria will have to leave them or pay for them themselves due to the beginning of the summer season. Instead, the Bulgarian government has proposed resettling refugees from the coastal zone to cheaper departmental facilities within the country, providing free housing there. Until May 31, the collection of data on people in need of further free housing agreeing to move to departmental bases continued. However, according to the minister, the government received extremely low feedback from refugees and the transport that came to pick up people from coastal hotels was empty. Therefore, the Bulgarian government is suspending the plan of relocation from hotels to departmental bases.

Persons who really need housing and agree to accept accommodation options from the state, will still be housed in departmental databases from the list on the site. But from now on, the logistics of such refugees will not be carried out centrally from hotel to hotel. Instead, Ukrainians will first be temporarily resettled in the buffer zones of Sarafovo and Elhovo, refugee camps that meet basic EU requirements. From there, after the needs of refugees are clarified, they will be taken to departmental bases. The Deputy Prime Minister called on Ukrainians who do not need housing from the state to report this to the national headquarters. Exact contacts were not provided, but in our article we told where it was necessary to report it by May 31.

It is emphasized that all persons with the status of temporary protection, regardless of whether they want to use humanitarian housing from the state or not, still have the right to legally reside in Bulgaria and enjoy social benefits. Participation in the resettlement program does not affect the legal status and rights of Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria.

Ukrainians themselves, who stayed in Bulgaria's coastal hotels until May 31, said they had not sabotaged the resettlement plan. According to them, they did not receive notifications from the government about the logistics of resettlement and did not know where the transport was going to take them.