Illegal employment: raid against undeclared work on the building

Customs are performing with a nationwide raid against undeclared work in the construction industry. As announced by the General Colleus in Bonn, 2800 customs officers moved out of all main customs offices to check on construction sites. Cities such as Cologne, Berlin and Munich deals with the question of whether the workers receive less than the minimum wage, whether they can work as a foreigner there and whether the employees are properly registered for social security. The raids on construction sites in a large number of cities in Germany are to run until Monday evening.

On a construction site of a rehabilitation center in Bornheim near Cologne, around 30 customs officers initially controlled 27 men who were busy with construction activities in the building, such as plastering. According to the information, five of them were illegally employed, they came from Belarus and Kosovo.

Customs are now investigating the construction company for illegal employment. The men have to answer for illegal stay or illegal employment. Later, the customs officers found a Kosovar, who had pressed himself to the outer wall of the building at a height of 15 meters on a roof lead. The hiding place was not harmless, said the spokesman for the Cologne main customs office, Jens Ahland.

In his assessment, the men were paid extremely poorly. “I would be surprised if you even get the minimum wage, usually you will be fed with a few euros.” The brewing industry is a challenge for customs in combating undeclared work and illegal employment.