May 13 (SeeNews) - The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) said it will grant close to 2 million euro ($2.1 million) from its Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF) to help support people fleeing the war in Ukraine into Bulgaria, Moldova, Estonia and Lithuania.
In Bulgaria, the local office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will receive 400,000 euro, the CEB said in a statement on Wednesday.
Moldova's ministry of health will be the recipient of 900,000 euro, close to 500,000 euro will go to the ministry of social affairs and labour of Lithuania and the balance of 200,000 euro will be provided to the Estonian Refugee Council.
The new funding will be used to finance refugees' most immediate needs such as healthcare, counselling and psychological services, training in digital skills and e-services as well as for the renovation and extension of reception centres in the four countries.
The latest grant will take to 5.1 million euro the total provided to CEB member countries -- Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia -- by the bank's MRF in response to the displacement of some 5.9 million Ukrainians since the start of the war on February 24, according to the statement.
In March, CEB approved the fast-tracked disbursement of 3.1 million from the MRF to the IOM's country offices in Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia as well as to the Refugee Facilities Administration of the Czech interior ministry to ensure transport, shelter, medical care, counselling and registration of refugees, as the countries have experienced a significant inflow of people from Ukraine.
Bulgaria is currently hosting 104,235 refugees from Ukraine, of whom over 98% are registered under temporary protection legislation, the head of the country's state refugee agency Mariana Tosheva said on Thursday, as seen in a video file published by local news outlet Dnevnik. Among EU member states, Bulgaria now has the highest number of refugees registered for temporary protection, Tosheva noted.
Last month, the European Commission paid 148.4 million euro to Bulgaria as part of a funding scheme designed to help individual member states cope with the cost of emergency support to people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
($ = 0.96177 euro)