Employees’ obligations during inspections

If you are an employee and subject to a customs inspection, you are required by law to allow such inspection to be conducted and to cooperate fully.

Upon request you must provide all the necessary information, such as

• giving your personal details,
• giving details of your employment relationship (e.g. working hours, wages, employment, contract, modes of payment),
• presenting the documents which you are obliged to carry as proof of the scope, type, and duration of your employment relationship, and/or
• presenting the identity documents you are carrying.

If you are employed to drive a transport vehicle such as a bus, lorry, or taxi, you must bring your vehicle to a halt when requested to do so by the customs authorities.

While carrying out a paid activity in certain industries (such as the construction, restaurant and hospitality business, or in industrial cleaning) you are obliged to always carry your identity document, passport, or the relevant substitute document, and present it on request to the customs authorities for inspection.

As a temporary agency worker you are required to carry and show such documents only if you are working in an industry that is subject to the carrying requirements described above.

The relevant industries are listed in the instruction sheet on the obligation to carry and show identity documents.

As a foreigner you are obliged to present your passport, passport substitute, or substitute identity document as well as your residence title, prohibition of deportation, or residence authorisation on request. If there is reason to believe that the stipulations of immigration legislation have been breached, you must surrender these documents to the customs authorities for transfer to the competent foreigners authority.

You can refuse to answer questions that may put you, or someone close to you (for example, your fiancée/fiancée, spouse, common-law partner) at risk of being prosecuted for a criminal offence. This right of refusal does not, however, affect your obligation to make information available during an inspection. Whatever the case, you must always state your personal details.

If you fail to cooperate during an inspection, that is, if you

• are in breach of your obligation to provide information, or
• are not carrying the identity documents required by legislation, or
• do not surrender such documents to the customs authorities on request,

you are committing an administrative offence, and can be fined.