Those who are starting their summer vacation by plane these days need nerves of steel.

Many passengers had to wait hours at the check-in counters and security controls.

The labor market is no longer just about the much-cited shortage of skilled workers, but also about a general shortage of workers.

The aviation industry is missing 5,500 workers across Germany.

Therefore, the federal government is now happy with a special regulation.

Alexander Wulfers

Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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The answer to the staff shortage sounds a bit like it was from the 1960s, when “guest workers” were supposed to drive the German economic miracle without anyone having thought about their integration.

At that time, more than 860,000 people immigrated to Germany from Turkey alone, initially only temporarily.

Now foreign workers are supposed to help out again.

They should come mainly from Turkey and go home after three months.

Knowledge of German is not necessary.

The reason: the work is limited in time.

The Federal Foreign Office is to issue thousands of work visas in a fast-track procedure.

The Turks are to be deployed in luggage loading and at check-in.

It is expressly not about jobs in the security sector.

They still need a safety check, there should be no compromises here.

The federal government says it was all thought up by the industrial associations.

But politicians must now create the framework conditions for this.

A troika consisting of Transport Minister Volker Wissing, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was formed for this purpose.

Nobody feels responsible

It was Faeser who, at a joint press conference on Wednesday, praised what a great sign of good cooperation in the federal government it was that three ministries were involved in the decision.

Anyone who wants to find out more about the program in the ministries quickly comes to a different conclusion: nobody seems to feel really responsible.

When the announcement was made, the three ministers dismissed inquiries with the objection that it was up to the companies.

The Ministry of Labor refers to the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of the Interior for questions about the specific design.

The Ministry of Transport and the Interior also do not feel responsible (after all, it is about visas) and refer both to the Foreign Office.

Three ministers on TV and no one feels compelled to act.

Voices from the aviation industry, from which the initiative supposedly came, sound similarly haphazard.

When asked by the FAS, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Verkehrsflughäfen could not name any of the Turkish service providers who are supposed to provide them with the workers.

Instead, the companies are passing the buck back to politics: According to the Association of Service Providers at German Airports, it is not known how things will continue until the federal government clarifies more details.

And the employers' association of ground handling service providers has so far had "no concrete information", the talks between the ministries are ongoing.