Another day, another asylum charity being subsidised by the taxpayer.
Today’s example is “Refugees Rock”, “a free climbing club” that “welcomes anyone seeking sanctuary” (the new trendy way to describe illegal immigrants/ asylum seekers).
Refugees Rock registered as a charity last year, which it described as “a major achievement” - as though it had won a prize. “Getting registered means we can apply for funding, benefit from charitable status and operate as an independent organisation”, wrote staff member Megan Murray at the time.
According to a post by partner charity Migrant Help (which received £194,462,000 from taxpayers between 2021–25), it and Refugees Rock’s “Boulders Beyond Borders initiative” is funded by (debt-ridden) Birmingham City Council.
Refugees Rock was founded in Liverpool in 2021 and has established groups in 10 locations (“and counting!”):
It has a large number of partners, from “founding partners” to “climbing walls” to “charities”.
Founding partners include The British Red Cross (which received £417,960,000 from taxpayers between 2020-24) and Action Asylum (which a project by “The Task Force Trust”, a registered charity that received £144.39k from taxpayers between 2021-25).
Other charity partners of Refugees Rock include Migrant Help and a few others whose funding I now need to nose into, as well as the ghastly Care 4 Calais.
I have already spotted that at least two - Heart4Refugees and Action Asylum - have had funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. Yet more reason not to buy a Lottery ticket.
Last week I added up taxpayer funding for 66 charities and it stood at £2.6 billion (across the last five tax years)…
… with the bill for asylum and migration charities is £261,897,909 and counting.
Reminder: the UK's public sector net debt stands at approximately £3 trillion.
More:
Climbing and abseiling are very useful skills during an embassy siege, or when escaping from law enforcement.
Why, and on what grounds? grounds