Overview

• More than 200 personnel carried out coordinated inspections of over 150 dwellings in Duisburg, Hagen, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Krefeld, Velbert and Wuppertal.
• Inspectors reported rubbish piles, open or broken electrical boxes, missing doors and windows and defunct lifts, and they found an illegal cellar apartment in Hagen.
• The operation targets alleged landlord networks that acquire derelict buildings, rent to mainly Bulgarian and Romanian migrants and profit from social-benefit misuse.
• Police, customs, local order offices, fire services and investigators from the Federal Employment Agency, job centers and the family benefits office took part.
• The state cites persistent obstacles — weak data sharing, limits on demolitions and free-movement implementation issues — even as municipal taskforces have worked on the problem since 2018.