Germany has just started an ambitious program to fly in seasonal workers to be employed in the fields to pick crops - such as white asparagus - to fill the gap in the workforce left by the travel bans imposed in Europe after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Last year, the country employed some 300,000 people in the fields, mainly from Eastern Europe. Now, the German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloecker says they're aiming to allow entry to a total of 80,000 seasonal workers over the months of April and May. 

Despite travel restrictions and the risk of infection with COVID-19, Romanian workers are still willing to make the trip to Germany to gain a wage much higher than the one they would receive back in Romania. A total of 9,900 workers have already registered online to participate to the program in April and another 4,300 for May.

On Thursday, two planeloads of Eastern European workers arrived in Berlin and Düsseldorf, and more are planned for the cities of Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Frankfurt.

Germany says that transport companies must guarantee social distancing is respected during travel, but footage from the airport shows big crowd of people, many close together.

Workers can only travel in controlled groups and get medical checks on arrival. They must then live and work separately from other workers for a period of two weeks and wear protective gear.

Source(s): AP