site.btaLabour Minister: Around 7,300 Monthly Average of Refugees on Labour Market in 2023

Data for 2023 show that an average of about 7,300 refugees were working under an employment contract every month, Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivanka Shalapatova told Nova TV on Sunday. She said that in the summer, the Employment Agency reported an increase to 10,000 a month, which she said was due to mainly people from Ukraine.

Employment is a very important part of the overall integration, especially for the people who came from Ukraine because of the war, Shalaptova said. She noted that the joint efforts of the Interior Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the State Agency for Refugees are to make sure that the care for these people is fully comprehensive. 

Asked whether Bulgaria's accession to Schengen by air and sea would affect the labour market, Shalapatova replied that she did not expect any substantial impact on the labour market, but rather an easing in terms of facilitating the movement of people.

"Once the agreement enters into force, which is expected in March, all Bulgarian citizens will have much easier movement by air and sea. When we fly, for example, to another Schengen member state, we will not have so-called passport checks, we will make much faster connections, the minister said. We expect this to have a very good impact on employers who have a system in place for remote working of their employees, for example, Bulgarians working for international companies," she said. According to her, expectations are that implications will be only positive. 

Asked whether she will remain a minister after the rotation of prime ministers, she said that everyone in the Council of Ministers is mobilised to achieve the goals in the management programme, which in the social sphere are extremely ambitious.

"We are also catching up with many delayed processes and we want to restore the reputation of the social system and its credibility and increase the efficiency of all social payments," Shalapatova said. "The rotation is not on the agenda at the moment, this is a decision of the political circles in Bulgaria, my priority is to do the best I can in the short time I have and if the evaluation of my work is good, I guess I will stay in the position, but for me this is not the focus," she said.