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There are said to be more than 200: Mystery of the vanished vocational students from Berlin
Berlin - At a vocational school in Berlin, more than 200 students from Vietnam are said to have disappeared - no one knows exactly how many there are, no one knows exactly where they are going.
In the ZDF documentary series "Die Spur" [The Trail], filmmakers Linda Huber, Linh Tran and Steffi Unsleber take on the subject and get to the bottom of the mystery.
At the center is the Oberstufenzentrum (OSZ) Gastgewerbe in Berlin - Germany's largest vocational school for apprentices in the hospitality industry. More students are enrolled there than actually attend classes.
The filmmakers get little help from the school itself. The school management has been placed under a gag order by the Berlin Senate Administration, and the authority itself answers questions only evasively or not at all.
A school insider reveals that there is no reliable overview of the number of students, as they are neither accurately recorded nor monitored. But what happens to the missing apprentices? The answer is quite simple: undeclared work.
"For the first few months we act completely normal, as if we really want to take part in the training," says one of those affected, who wishes to remain anonymous. Then they drop out and work in "flower shops, nail salons, restaurants, or for relatives or acquaintances," he says.
Vietnamese apprentices frequently end up in undeclared work
The problem: The training allowance is simply too low, because the students have to pay a lot of money to recruitment agencies in Vietnam - on average 12,000 euros, according to reports. As a result, moving into undeclared work is simply more lucrative.
There are also young Vietnamese who exploit the system from the outset and use the apprenticeship contract essentially as a visa for Germany.
In 2023, in response to the shortage of skilled workers, the Bundestag [German federal parliament] passed a legislative amendment to make it easier for skilled workers to come to Germany - including from Vietnam. Vietnamese placement agencies charge hefty fees for this - something that would be illegal in Germany.
Police repeatedly carry out raids at the Dong Xuan Center in Berlin-Lichtenberg on suspicion of undeclared work. (archive photo)
In addition, people smugglers copy valid apprenticeship contracts and insert different names. They then sell them to people who are desperate to enter Germany, so the training is started only as a sham and the real goal is undeclared work.
It is a vicious cycle: The apprentices generally arrive already heavily indebted and are also often put under pressure by their superiors, because if they risk losing their apprenticeship position, they face loss of residence status and forced return to their home country - so it is both a high financial and personal risk.
The documentary "Die Spur - Das Rätsel der verschwundenen Azubis" [The Trail - The Mystery of the Vanished Apprentices] has been available in the ZDF Mediathek streaming service since October 28, 2026.