Labour inspectors found illegal workers on 18% of the building sites they visited last year, compared with 30% in 2007, news agency ANP reports on Tuesday.

The reduction in the number of workers without proper papers is ‘spectacular’, the inspection service said.
Illegal staff were found working in 16% of all companies inspected last year, compared with 18% in 2007. Labour inspectors carried out some 10,000 spot checks.
The drop in illegal labour is due partly to the increase in inspections and high fines, but also because Poles no longer need a work permit in the Netherlands, the inspectors said.
A large proportion of the illegal workers now come from Romania and Bulgaria who still need work permits in the Netherlands despite being members of the EU. Many employers try to get round the work permit issue by taking on Bulgarians and Romanians as freelancers, ANP said.