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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany wants to bring in foreign workers as quickly as possible to relieve airports overwhelmed by staff shortages during the busy summer season, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said.

The temporary workers, who would be offered accommodation and standard wage, would have to fulfil the same security and reliability checks as other staff, for example baggage handlers, which in general takes about two weeks, the spokesperson said at a regular government news conference in Berlin on Monday.

Travellers across Europe are facing especially long queues this summer as travel demand is back in full force after COVID-19 lockdowns, and airports and airlines are having trouble maintaining enough staff to handle the crunch.

A spokesperson for the Labour Ministry would not comment on how many foreign workers were expected to come, but Bild am Sonntag reported that the aim is to bring in a four-digit number of skilled workers from Turkey to Germany to work from July.

Foreign workers could be used for baggage handling, said Andreas Rosskopf, the chairman of Germany's police union.

But he warned against trying to put them in positions requiring additional security.

"We are talking about people who have to be intensively screened and briefed in terms of security. That takes a certain amount of time," Rosskopf told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

(Reporting by Miranda Murray)