Bulgaria to relocate Ukrainian refugees from Black Sea hotels as holiday season looms

The lack of information creates great anxiety," Olga, a young Ukrainian woman, told private TV channel Nova at Sunny Beach Resort. Some refugees say they cannot afford to pay themselves to stay at the resorts while others who come from regions of Ukraine badly affected by the war are afraid to go back.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who found shelter in Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts will have to leave their hotels by June 1 due to cuts in government subsidies and the start of the summer holiday season.

When Ukrainians started fleeing their country after Russia invaded on Feb. 24, Bulgaria - like many other countries in central and eastern Europe - sprang into action to help settle and house them. Bulgaria does not share a border with Ukraine and the refugees had to travel there via Romania. Out of 97,000 refugees now in the Balkan country, about 60,000, mostly women and children, have been hosted at the resorts, with the Bulgarian state providing a daily subsidy of 40 levs ($22) per person.

With the holiday season kicking in and the government's decision to slash the subsidies to just 15 levs per day from June 1, many facilities say they can no longer afford to look after the refugees. Authorities are preparing to move refugees to state facilities or other hotels around the country over the weekend, but hotel owners and refugees complain of a lack of information.

"Many of the Ukrainians have already said they would either search for their own accommodation or will leave the country," Blagomir Kotsev, regional governor of the Black Sea city of Varna, said on Wednesday. Kotsev said about 18,000 refugees would stay at hotels that have agreed to accept less money, while about 20,000 Ukrainians plan to return home, meaning the state has to find accommodation at state facilities for the remaining 20,000 or so people.

He said transport was being arranged and for now it appeared there would be enough places to host the refugees. 'GREAT ANXIETY'

Margarita Hristova, manager of a hotel at the Golden Sands resort which has hosted some 360 refugees, said she had sought information in vain from state institutions about the impending transfers. "I am worried about the organisation or rather the lack of it. I suspect it will be chaotic," she told national BNR radio.

The refugees themselves are no better informed. "To which village or city we will go, nobody knows. The lack of information creates great anxiety," Olga, a young Ukrainian woman, told private TV channel Nova at Sunny Beach Resort.

Some refugees say they cannot afford to pay themselves to stay at the resorts while others who come from regions of Ukraine badly affected by the war are afraid to go back. "We have no job and no means for living. I have two children who need soup to grow up... and I do not know when all this is going to end," one young Ukrainian woman staying at a Sunny Beach hotel told private TV channel NOVA. ($1 = 1.8369 leva)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)