Belgium calls up army to cover prison guard strike over budget cuts

Record ID: 104221

  • Title: Belgium calls up army to cover prison guard strike over budget cuts
  • Date: 10th May 2016
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MAY 10, 2016) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FOREST PRISON WITH POLICE CAR DRIVING PAST VARIOUS OF PRISON STAFF STRIKING OUTSIDE PRISON POLICE CAR ENTERING PRISON EXTERIOR OF PRISON BARBED WIRE ON PRISON WALLS BANNER ON PRISON WALL READING (French): "THE PEOPLE ON THE STREETS ARE ANGRY" / PRISON STAFF STRIKING OUTSIDE PRISON SURVEILLANCE CAMERA OUTSIDE PRISON FOREST-VORST MAYOR, MARC-JEAN GHYSSELS, BEING INTERVIEWED (SOUNDBITE) (French) FOREST-VORST MAYOR, MARC-JEAN GHYSSELS, SAYING: "In this prison, some (inmates) have not left their nine square-metre cells in five days. So 24/7 in nine square metres without leaving, I don't know if you can imagine the level of stress and tension that there could be. So the police has intervened to organise prison yard time, showers, telephone use, so there can at least be a bit of social contact. But the conditions are totally inhuman." EXTERIOR OF PRISON BARBED WIRE ON PRISON WALLS CAR ENTERING PRISON THROUGH GATE CAR DRIVING FURTHER IN / GATE CLOSING
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2016 14:38
  • Keywords: Belgium army prison guards strike budget cuts staff
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014H870W7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Belgium has called up the military to assist in prisons where guards have been on strike for two weeks over what they say is dangerously low staffing due to budget cuts.
    Six platoons of 30 soldiers have been mobilised to help police and the Red Cross who are currently at work in prisons in Brussels and the French-speaking region of Wallonia, where prison officers are striking.
    Conditions in the prisons have worsened and some inmates are not receiving certain basic rights such as showers, three meals a day, family visits and access to lawyers.
    Both the military and police are already stretched, with increased patrols particularly in Brussels, where suicide bombers killed 32 people at the airport and on the metro on March 22.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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