On March 17th, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas launched the largest repatriation campaign in the Federal Republic of Germany and brought families and friends back together. The joy only lasts for a short time. Because today, some horrific ticket bills can be found in the mailbox of those recovered.

It happened in quick succession: In March this year, almost every country in the world closed its borders due to the impending pandemic and suspended all flight connections. Thousands and thousands of people were stuck in the travel destination - until the Federal Foreign Office, in cooperation with tour operators and airlines, flew the "stranded" out. They now get the bill: For flights from the Canary Islands and North Africa, 200 euros had to be paid. For southern Africa and the Caribbean, 500 euros were due. Anyone who was brought back from New Zealand and Australia had to pay up to 1000 euros. Almost 94 million euros were needed to bring back around 240.000 people.

Around 67.000 tourists are currently receiving cost assessments from the Federal Foreign Office. But not everyone is willing to pay: eight months after the repatriation campaign, the federal government only collected a good quarter of the estimated cost share from the flight passengers, according to the news magazine Merkur reported. According to the ministry, this flushed 10,6 million euros into the state coffers. Quite a few would even want to take the payment notices to court. Meanwhile, at least 60 lawsuits are pending. 

A distinction must be made here: Tourists who have booked their trip through a tour operator do not have to be left with costs. You get the money back. Even individual travelers are not necessarily left with the costs of the return campaign: If they had booked a flight with an airline in the EU, they can in any case request the airline to reimburse the price for the flight that was canceled. In this case, however, the Brandenburg consumer center rates the chances as rather low.