Prison staff across Belgium walked off the job on Tuesday in a 24-hour strike, with unions protesting the planned use of private security agents at a new Antwerp prison set to open later this year. The workers object to the government's decision — taken without prior consultation — to deploy private personnel for tasks such as visitor access control and car park supervision, which they see as part of a broader creeping privatisation of federal public services. Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) has defended the move as temporary and limited in scope, while a separate legislative proposal to allow non-Belgian EU and Swiss nationals to work in prisons has also drawn union opposition on constitutional grounds; talks between unions and the Minister for Civil Service, Vanessa Matz, are scheduled for Wednesday.