12 December 2006
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BRUSSELS, Belgium: Belgian police raided a European Union building construction site Tuesday to check for illegal workers.
Police spokesman Christian De Coninck said 15 workers were detained and taken away for questioning after the morning raid at the 14-story building, situated in the Belgian-capital's EU quarter, just across from the headquarters of the European Commission.
[...]
The raid seemed to be a regular inspection under Belgian social and employment rules to ensure no illegal workers were on site, said Dominique-Georges Marro, spokesman of the EU's Council of Ministers. He added his EU institution was "not involved" at all in the raid, nor did it currently own the building, which is slated to be completed in 2007. It is to house 1,300 translators.
As I wrote after our trip to Belgium there is a lot of black market activity in Belgium but it ever so slightly amusing to discover that the building contractors engaged by the EU have turned out to be some of the ones doing the black market thing...