Germany has launched a drive to bring home thousands of tourists stranded in popular winter vacation spots across the world _ particularly people on package holidays in Morocco, the Dominican Republic, Philippines, the Maldives and Egypt. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said today that the government is spending up to 50 million euros on the effort to bring Germans home over the coming days in cooperation with airlines including Lufthansa. Maas didn't give a precise number of stranded Germans but said there was a particularly large number in Morocco, with around 4,000 or 5,000. He said that "even if we will do everything humanly possible, we cannot in every case provide a solution within 24 hours.'' Maas said his ministry has issued a formal warning against tourist travel to any country.-AP

Source: The Standard March 17, 2020 08:48 UTC