In April 2022, twelve buses from Ukraine waited at Bulgaria's Durankulak border checkpoint for temporary-protection registration. They carried more than 500 displaced people. During the same week, Bulgaria registered about 20,000 people for temporary protection, bringing the total to roughly 52,000.
This was not a line of individuals standing along a pavement. It was an ordered border wait measured in buses. Temporary-protection registration connected displaced people to lawful residence and access to work, education, healthcare and other systems. At the checkpoint, the flow of people moving toward safety met the administrative pace at which a country could register them.
What distinguishes this wait is that its smallest visible unit was not one person but an entire bus. Behind the totals were people who had escaped war and were waiting for the registration needed to take the next step in their lives.