Half of all Belgian construction workers are foreigners

The number of foreign workers in the Belgian construction industry has soared. In 2007 just under 24,000 construction workers held a foreign passport, while by last year this figure had increased to over 101,000.

The figures come from Belgium's social security agency.

Some 200,000 people currently work in the Belgian construction industry. During the past two years the number of foreign workers increased by 25,000 each and every year.

0ver 62,000 foreign workers are employed by firms registered in the Netherlands. Poland supplied over 43,000 foreign workers followed by Germany, France, Luxembourg, Romania, Hungary and Portugal.

The number of bankruptcies in the sector has also doubled since 2007 (1,042) with 2,030 last year.
 

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