It was the largest repatriation campaign in the history of the Federal Republic: In spring 2020, the then Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (55, SPD) brought 67,000 Germans from all corners of the world back to their homeland with chartered planes.
The Federal Foreign Office then sent 54,000 invoices – 7,000 of which have still not been paid to this day. The federal government is running after the money for the return campaign!
The Federal Foreign Office demanded ticket prices in the area of cheaper economy tickets for the respective regions. For flights from the Caribbean around 500 euros were due, for trips home from Australia or New Zealand 1000 euros. After all, the deadline is still running for most of the 7,000 outstanding invoices or payment in installments has been agreed.
But in 1200 cases, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already initiated a dunning procedure because the vacationers refuse to pay. In total, it is more than 3.1 million euros.
► Problem: The taxpayer is left with a large part of the costs anyway. Of the total cost of 93.8 million euros, passengers should only pay 40 percent themselves, i.e. 31.7 million euros.
Because: The flights of the return campaign caused significantly more costs than regular flights.
Also because the planes traveled to the remotest places in the world in a very short time. The most remote place from which Germans were brought back was the Cook Islands in the South Pacific – more than 10,500 miles away. From there, from Western Samoa and from the Pacific island states of Vanuatu and Tonga, 66 Germans and 34 citizens from other EU countries were picked up in a particularly expensive individual action with two aircraft.
First lawsuits dismissed
Vacationers are currently suing 135 payment notices, even in court, in order not to have to contribute to the costs.
The first lawsuits have already been dismissed: A family of six, for example, was brought from Mexico and was supposed to pay 600 euros per person – but refused. The Lufthansa charter flight with 282 passengers cost the Foreign Office 612,000 euros, or 2,170 euros per passenger. According to the Berlin Administrative Court, the cost sharing is legal.
The court also dismissed the lawsuit brought by a family of three. She was picked up from New Zealand and was supposed to pay 1000 euros. For the empty outbound flight and the return flight from New Zealand with 300 passengers, Lufthansa charged a total of 995,000 euros, more than 3,300 euros per seat.
The judge said the government was legally entitled to bill some of the costs. The requested lump sums would have been “well below the actual costs”.
Germany also has to collect money from abroad: around 500 invoices to German citizens abroad still have to be sent. The Federal Foreign Office is expecting four million euros from other countries to take their citizens with them. Germany has already received EU subsidies of 38.1 million.
The bottom line is that the Federal Foreign Office assumes that it will get back 70 to 75 percent of the costs for the return campaign.
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