Eurowings takes harvest workers to Germany

In Germany, a specific topic has been under discussion since the corona crisis: harvest workers. Numerous farmers have been employing harvest workers in the spring and summer months for years. These mostly come from Eastern Europe, especially from Romania and Poland. Many farmers saw their harvest threatened by tightened border controls and the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) sounded alarm. Now, the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings is offering help.

According to the current situation, the entry of foreign harvest workers into Germany has been approved as long as they enter by plane. In the past, this could only be observed in isolated cases, usually harvest workers came to Germany by car or bus. This new regulation serves to avoid overloading border controls and to minimize the risk of infection. However, in the context of the corona crisis, flights were radically cut back or flight connections from the respective countries were rather rare.

Therefore, Eurowings now offers special flights for harvest workers. Affected farmers can register for the flights on a special website. In close cooperation with the German Farmers’ Association, the current airports of departure are Iasi (IAS), Timişoara (TSR), Sibiu (SBZ), Cluj (CLJ) and Bucharest (OTP). From here, Eurowings flies the harvest workers to airports throughout Germany. Currently eight destination airports are planned. If necessary, Eurowings intends to increase its range of departure and destination airports.

So it seems that there is now some relief on the critical issue of harvest workers in Germany. One has to keep in mind: this is not only about the farmer’s yield. Harvest workers from abroad are usually also dependent on this annual income. A complete loss of the harvest would have had devastating consequences at various ends. With the initiative of Eurowings, this crisis can probably be prevented.

Picture © Kevin Hackert

by Johanna Koyser