MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The situation with prisons in Belgium's French-speaking region Wallonia was described on Tuesday as "apocalyptic" by a local parliament official amid a prison guard strike.
Recently, Vice President of the Wallonian parliament Alan Onkelinx and his colleague visited a prison in the region where around 1,000 prisoners are being watched over by only 10 guards instead of 100.
"The waste's terrible. The odor. The smell. Terrible. Our visit — shocking. The situation is apocalyptic," Onkelinx told CNN.
Since April, the prison guards in Wallonia and Brussels have been on strike in protest against the increase in the retirement age and staff shortage issues that have resulted in extra shifts. On May 17, dozens of rallying prison guards and work union activists broke into the building of the Belgian Justice Ministry.
