Hoteliers in Sunny Beach warn of new refugee wave from Ukraine

Against the backdrop of the new military tensions in Ukraine last week, hoteliers on the Bulgarian Southern Black Sea coast are warning of a new wave of refugees to Bulgaria. Every day buses of Ukrainians arrive in Sunny Beach seeking shelter.

Nearly 200 hotels on the Southern Black Sea coast are currently working under the refugee accommodation programme. The industry faces two problems - whether the programme, which ends at the end of this month, will be extended so they know whether to accommodate new refugees or not and what the pay will be - given the upcoming winter and expected higher electricity bills. Because of this, many hoteliers are reluctant to accommodate new refugees, and they say this wave is expected to be bigger than the previous one - given the tensions in Ukraine.

Kristina from Zaporizhzhya arrived in Sunny Beach at the beginning of the week with her 6-month-old baby, who has so far only seen the walls of the bomb shelter.

"Our town is constantly shelled, missiles are flying, we slept in the basement and the child was born during martial law. It was scary to give birth while the sounds of the missiles were above you, you could hear the gunfire, the alarm sirens. After the birth I tried to adapt, but the situation in Ukraine has now become even more complicated," says Kristina.

Ukrainians from Zaporizhzhya, where the situation is currently the worst, keep arriving in Sunny Beach.

"Today Zaporizhzhya is celebrating the city's holiday, we were supposed to have a lot of concerts and celebrate, but instead we had to evacuate. We carry the holiday in our soul, hoping for peace," says Alexandra.

"We come in a very difficult psychological state and moral support is very important for us, to know that there is somewhere to shelter, something to eat. Today we saw a plane in the sky, for the first time in a long time, because in recent months we have only seen missiles over Zaporizhzhya," says Karina.

It is difficult to find places for the new refugees, as most of the hotels are already filled with Ukrainians.

"We have a very big refugee wave coming in. In Sunny Beach, new refugees are coming in the streets, passing by hotel receptions, asking for vacancies," says hotelier Elena Andonova.

"Tonight we are expecting a bus, which we will share with colleagues from the Northern Black Sea coast. We will only take 15 people because we have a few rooms available," says hotelier Violeta Galeva.

The hoteliers also face the problem of what will happen after the end of the month, when the accommodation programme expires. They insist that the government extend it and announce the parameters soon.