The Labour Inspectorate has initiated court proceedings against the companies Antares Construction and the Belgrade branch of PowerChina International Group on suspicion that they employed undeclared workers on the EXPO 2027 project, the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) has reported. The proceedings have been ongoing for nearly a year.
Documentation shows that in just one month, the national Labour Inspectorate found 30 workers from Turkey and China at the EXPO construction site without work permits. The number is likely higher because, according to construction workers, they leave the site when inspectors arrive, CINS writes.
Yusuf Firat Baran, who worked for Antares Construction, says that he briefly handed over his passport to the company, which was supposed to register his residence, and that he would receive a so-called “white card” as confirmation. As he told CINS, he was informed that this should be sufficient proof that he was working legally while waiting for a work permit.
He had been working at the EXPO site for about three months when, in early February 2025, a national labour inspector arrived at the construction site unannounced.
“Egyptians, Peruvians, Arabs who were working for other subcontractors fled the site in panic. We stayed,” Yusuf recalls.
In the report drawn up by the inspector, obtained by CINS, it is stated that on that day she found 26 workers employed by Antares Construction at the site who did not have work permits, including Yusuf, who did not flee because he believed he was legally employed.
Marija Anđelković from the organisation Astra, which among other things deals with the protection of labour rights, explains that a worker employed without the appropriate permit is exposed to various risks.
“Such a situation creates room for different forms of abuse – from unpaid wages and unpaid overtime to confiscation of documents and restrictions on freedom of movement,” she told CINS.
The Labour Inspectorate has inspected the EXPO construction site and the National Football Stadium site at least seven times over the past year and a half.
Thus, in February 2025, at the National Stadium construction site, inspectors recorded four Chinese workers who did not have work permits. All of them were engaged by the Belgrade branch of PowerChina International Group Limited, which is part of the large Chinese corporation PowerChina.
The Inspectorate has filed a misdemeanour charge against them.
(Nova Ekonomija, 19.03.2026)