Asylum seekers are being offered free or heavily discounted entry to some of Britain\u2019s best-known tourist attractions, while domestic visitors can face the full cost of admission, according to a new report highlighting the increasingly contentious debate over preferential access to public and cultural institutions.<\/p>\n
A total of 21 attractions have been identified as offering free or substantially reduced-price entry to asylum seekers, including Kew Gardens, the Roman Baths and Canterbury Cathedral.<\/p>\n
An adult paying full price to visit all 21 venues would face a combined bill of \u00a3337, according to an analysis by The Sun. An asylum seeker using a Home Office Application Registration Card could pay as little as \u00a328.<\/p>\n
At Canterbury Cathedral, the card provides free admission, compared with an \u00a318.50 adult ticket. At the Roman Baths, asylum seekers can enter without charge while other adults can pay as much as \u00a333.<\/p>\n
Kew Gardens offers asylum seekers<\/a> entry for 85p, compared with \u00a324.50 for most other visitors.<\/p>\n Read more related news:<\/p>\n Jeremy Clarkson eviscerates left over the Home Office asylum rape guide<\/a><\/p>\n Other attractions in cities including Bristol, Nottingham and Oxford also offer concessions to asylum seekers<\/a>, meaning that families paying the standard admission price can face substantially higher costs for visits to some of the country\u2019s most prominent cultural sites.<\/p>\n The arrangements have become politically sensitive as ministers face growing pressure over the cost of supporting asylum seekers<\/a> and the wider migration system.<\/p>\n Rob Bates of the Centre for Migration Control said the findings demonstrated what he described as an increasingly unequal system.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is yet more proof that we live in a two-tier society that prioritises illegal migrants<\/a> over British citizens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe chance to enjoy a subsidised summer of fun is yet another reason why migrants are choosing to break into our country.<\/p>\n \u201cThese kinds of pull factors need to end if we want the boats to stop.<\/p>\n \u201cChannel migrants enjoy free days out and perks, whilst the British taxpayer is forced to pay through the nose to access their own country\u2019s cultural sites.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, also criticised the arrangements, he fumed:\u00a0\u201cIt is so unfair. Why should asylum seekers get freebies at the expense of the taxpayer?.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must leave the ECHR so we can deport all illegal immigrants<\/a> within a week of arrival.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a shame the Labour Government<\/a> is too weak to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n The controversy comes as attractions across Britain use targeted concessions to widen access to cultural and educational sites for people on lower incomes or receiving state support.<\/p>\n The latest findings follow an earlier investigation by GB News into discounts available to benefit claimants<\/a>, which found that millions of pounds in potential savings had been made available over the past year.<\/p>\n More than 24.3 million people receive some form of Department for Work and Pensions<\/a> support, according to the figures cited by GB News. Yet some major attractions recorded only a few thousand discounted admissions.<\/p>\n The issue has therefore become less about the value of individual concessions than the broader question of who benefits from Britain\u2019s cultural infrastructure \u2014 and who ultimately pays for it.<\/p>\n William Yarwood, campaigns director at the Taxpayers\u2019 Alliance, described the arrangements as \u201cyet another example of a growing two-tier Britain where those paying in increasingly feel they get less back than those drawing from the system\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMinisters need to put an end to these endless perks and discounts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The debate is likely to intensify as Britain grapples with record levels of migration<\/a>, rising pressure on public services and growing demands from taxpayers for greater value from the state.<\/p>\n For the attractions themselves, discounted admission can form part of wider access programmes intended to remove financial barriers. But politically, the perception that asylum seekers can receive cheaper access than ordinary families paying the standard price risks becoming<\/a> another flashpoint in Britain\u2019s increasingly polarised migration debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asylum seekers are being offered free or heavily discounted entry to some of Britain\u2019s best-known tourist attractions, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[6151,13,11,10367,45008,14],"class_list":["post-108857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-britain","tag-finance","tag-hospitality-leisure","tag-illegla-migrants","tag-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117140222362639852","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}