COVID-19 return program of the German federal government

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During the COVID-19 pandemic , the German government initiated a return program through the Federal Foreign Office to bring back to Germany primarily German citizens and their families who were temporarily in regions particularly affected by travel restrictions .

This operation, which is also known as the “ airlift ” in politics and the media, began on March 16, 2020, a few days after French President Emmanuel Macron promised to repatriate his citizens from Morocco. The Federal Foreign Office also issued a worldwide travel warning . Numerous Germans had no opportunity to return independently due to the complete border closings of other countries, as the border closings no longer allowed regular flights. The background was the mostly unannounced actions in mid-March 2020 by the states, which in turn were supposed to prevent the virus from spreading in the sense of infection protection .

The 94 million euro program was the largest return campaign in the history of the Federal Republic. 240,000 people were flown back to Germany within a month. "Germans and their family members in the regions particularly affected by travel restrictions who are temporarily abroad (e.g. on vacation)" were brought back. For people who have a residence permit for Germany, live in Germany and have traveled on vacation from there, the Federal Foreign Office tried to find solutions within the scope of its capacities.

Lufthansa , Condor , Air New Zealand and the tour operators (mainly those of the FTI Group ) of those who were brought back were also involved in the organization and implementation of the return program.

The online tool Electronic Registration of Germans Abroad (ELEFAND), the newly established website "rueckholprogramm.de", the Twitter account of the Foreign Office and the embassies' Facebook pages were used for coordination .

In order not to endanger the ability of the Foreign Office to work and to prevent the entire workforce of the Ministry from having to be quarantined at home in the event of an infection in the Foreign Ministry, the workforce was divided into two groups and one of them obliged to work from home , so that the two groups in the event of an infection could switch.

course

Little was initially known (as of March 18, 2020) about the total number of citizens affected. Initially, the federal government only estimated that “far more than 100,000 Germans were traveling abroad”.

Up until March 20, holiday regions in particular were flown to and 96,000 people were brought back with the help of Lufthansa and tour operators. With up to then 35,000 people the largest share from Egypt , followed by more than 4,000 people from the Dominican Republic and Morocco . In addition, Algeria , Argentina , Costa Rica , Peru , the Philippines and Tunisia were served up to March 20 . To improve the process, the State of Berlin temporarily lifted the night flight ban for international flights at Tegel Airport .

By March 27, 160,000 people had been retrieved and around 200,000 calls with those affected and their relatives were made by around 50 employees. On the same day there were still 40,000 people to be fetched abroad.

On April 1, 187,000 of the more than 200,000 people registered for repatriation were back in Germany. Between 10,000 and 12,000 people registered for repatriation were waiting in New Zealand on that day for a return trip after all flights from there had been canceled. According to the Foreign Office, as of April 1 (contrary to previous reports) of those to be retrieved , 7,000 were in South Africa , 5,000 in Australia , 4,000 in Cuba , 4,000 in Thailand , 3,500 in the Philippines , 2,700-2500 in India and 2,000 in Peru . A few days later, the group of people from New Zealand, about 1200 people each day, began to fly home. To this end, 210 crew members who had registered as volunteers with Lufthansa were deployed on 10 flights for one week alone. It was the first time that Lufthansa aircraft landed in New Zealand. The vacation airline Condor also took part in this campaign with stopovers in Phuket . Air New Zealand also flew to Frankfurt via Vancouver . In addition, 150 people who were in Fiji were brought home via Australia.

In the first 20 days, 200,000 travelers from 57 countries were brought to Germany and more than 300 special flights were carried out. According to the agreement of the EU foreign ministers, EU citizens can also fly on return flights from other EU countries. Long-distance buses are used for journeys by land. On April 9, 2020, 40,000 people from New Zealand, South Africa and Peru were waiting for a return trip.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called at the beginning of April to take the global travel warning seriously and described it as "really irresponsible to go abroad now because you may not have to come back to Germany for a long time". On April 29, the Federal Foreign Office extended the worldwide travel warning until mid-June. Maas warned against lifting the travel warning prematurely and stated: "We cannot and will not bring another quarter of a million people back from vacation this summer."

quarantine

From April 10, 2020, everyone who returned to Germany after staying abroad for several days had to be in quarantine for 14 days in accordance with an agreement between the federal and state governments .

fee distribution

The returnees had to sign a declaration of consent for the assumption of costs, Section 6 of the Consular Act . If the repatriates had booked their stay abroad through a tour operator, the operator assumed the costs. Among the 240,000 returnees were 67,000 people whose repatriation costs were not covered by tour operators (e.g. individual travelers ) and from whom the German state charges a proportion of expenses for the repatriation. Among the 67,000 passengers were around 56,000 German citizens , 7600 people from other countries of the European Union (EU) and 3650 people from countries outside the EU. According to the Foreign Office , your cost notices are based on “a comparable flight ticket in economy class”. According to the plan, this should cover forty percent of the total costs estimated at 94 million euros. The cost of participation Back Geholten distinction was doing: For flights from the Canary Islands and North Africa were claims brought by 200 Euros. For southern Africa and the Caribbean , the federal government issued cost notices of 500 euros per traveler, returnees from South America and Asia were asked to pay 600 euros, and for a return from New Zealand and Australia 1000 euros were subsequently requested. The Federal Foreign Office sent the first 1,000 cost notices at the end of June 2020.

Return campaigns from other countries

Austria and Switzerland also initiated larger return campaigns than ever before in their history. Italy's return campaigns began with a first flight on February 2, 2020. France also initiated a return campaign; In Morocco alone there were initially 20,000 French citizens.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Eva Dignös, Irene Helmes, Katja Schnitzler: Return to Germany: How vacationers come home again. In: sueddeutsche.de. April 9, 2020, accessed April 11, 2020 .
  2. ↑ COVID-19. Federal Foreign Office, March 20, 2020, accessed on March 21, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Martina Lippl: Corona crisis: Germany expands “airlift” for vacationers - largest return campaign in history. Update from March 20, 2020, 4.40 p.m. In: merkur.de. March 20, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Return campaign for vacationers travel warning and "airlift". In: tagesschau.de. March 17, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Irene Helmes, Katja Schnitzler, Eva Dignös: Coronavirus: How vacationers come home again. In: sueddeutsche.de. April 24, 2020, accessed April 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b c Coronavirus News on Friday: British Minister of Health threatens to close beaches. In: Der Spiegel. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .
  7. ↑ ARD video - Corona pandemic: Federal government repatriation campaign (min. 00: 07–00: 20). March 20, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Return campaign and worldwide travel warning. In: Auswaertiges-amt.de. April 1, 2020, accessed April 1, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Corona virus: Condor ends return campaign - now harvest helper and face mask flights. airportzentrale.de, accessed on June 26, 2020 .
  10. ↑ FTI GROUP completes large-scale return campaign. Retrieved June 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ tagesschau.de: Return campaign due to coronavirus: Many tourists are still stuck. March 20, 2020, accessed June 26, 2020 .
  12. ↑ rueckholprogramm.de
  13. ↑ a b c d e f Christoph Schult: Crisis team of the federal government: The man who brings 200,000 Germans home. In: Der Spiegel. March 27, 2020, accessed March 28, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Maas launches “Airlift” for stranded Germans. In: merkur.de. March 17, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Martina Lippl: Corona crisis: Germany expands “airlift” for vacationers - largest return campaign in history. In: merkur.de. March 20, 2020, accessed March 22, 2020 .
  16. ↑ a b c Bund flies stranded vacationers back. In: Flugrevue.de. March 20, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  17. ↑ a b c d Coronavirus News on Wednesday: European Medicines Agency warns of anti-malarial drugs. In: Der Spiegel. April 1, 2020, accessed April 1, 2020 .
  18. ↑ a b c Anke Richter: Return flights from New Zealand: "Heiko, come fly for me". In: Der Spiegel. April 9, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Maas against “quick shots” when travel warnings are lifted. In: faz.net. May 3, 2020, accessed May 3, 2020 .
  20. ↑ 14 days quarantine for travelers. In: tagesschau.de. April 6, 2020, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Thousands of travelers in corona quarantine. In: tagesschau.de. April 10, 2020, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Return flights can be expensive for vacationers. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. March 27, 2020, accessed on June 26, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  23. ↑ Foreign Minister calls for a speedy return home. In: orf.at. March 22, 2020, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Corona crisis leads to historical return campaign: This is what Swiss people who are stuck abroad experience. March 27, 2020, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  25. ^ Coronavirus, le operazioni per il rientro degli italiani all'estero. In: governo.it. Retrieved April 13, 2020 (Italian).
  26. ↑ Coronavirus: la France organize le retour de ses ressortissants coincés à l'étranger. In: france24.com. March 19, 2020, accessed on April 13, 2020 (French).