Bulgaria has started a new system of registering war refugees from Ukraine directly at the border.

Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Wednesday that he inspected the facility on its first day of operation on Tuesday.

It is located at the border crossing on the Danube bridge to Romania near the Bulgarian town of Russe

“The problem was that the refugees were entering and we didn’t know where they were going. Now everything is traceable,” Mr Petkov said.

Bulgaria has so far been mostly a transit country for war refugees from Ukraine.

Of the 81,000 people who have arrived via Romania since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, just under 38,000 have remained in Bulgaria, which is the EU’s poorest country.

Among them are members of the Bulgarian minority in Ukraine. Only 267 people applied for refugee status, Bulgarian border police said Tuesday.

People who have fled Ukraine are put up in hotels and holiday homes, mainly on the Black Sea coast, or with volunteers, friends or relatives.

They have received job offers from Bulgarian companies, especially in the IT sector.

(dpa/NAN)