Army offers to let recruits live with mum

BELGIUM: Army recruits in Belgium may be allowed to live at home, as the military tries to attract a younger generation into its ranks.

They will also have weekends off during their basic training – much to the disgust of veterans.

‘‘The army wants to include more free evenings where the recruit can leave the barracks,’’ Alex Claesen, a spokesman for the ministry of defence, told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

‘‘The army is even studying whether the boarding regime can be relaxed or even lifted. Then the recruits who live near the military school or the barracks can go home in the evening.’’

Belgian soldiers have a high profile patrolling the streets of big cities under the counter-terrorism operation Vigilant Guardian, introduced after the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015 and the Brussels bombings a few months later.

Amid a recruitment crisis, the average age of a Belgian soldier has risen to

44. The country has only 2.6 soldiers per

1000 civilians, fewer than most of its Nato allies, with a total strength of barely

28,000.

The army is struggling to attract new soldiers owing in part to pension cuts and poor job prospects in later life for those who have served in one of Europe’s less well-known or elite armed forces.

Belgian veterans have accused the defence ministry of undermining the army’s reputation and setting a dangerous precedent for a Nato force with its latest recruitment initiatives.

‘‘You do not go to a war zone with men who miss their mummy,’’ Danny Lams, a former paratrooper, said. ‘‘We used to sleep on the cold ground under a leaky tarpaulin. We wanted to serve our country. We did not skive off to go home.’’

Luc de Vos, a defence expert, said the new policy was unpopular but might be unavoidable. ‘‘The army adapts to modern society. And that society is not as hard as it was,’’ he said.