LONDON (AP) – A chain of holiday parks in Britain has kept a list of “unwanted guests” with Irish surnames in an effort to keep members of the Irish travel community out, the British watchdog said on Tuesday.
The list kept by Pontins, displayed on an on-site intranet site, contains about 40 largely Irish names, including Cash, Delaney, Gallagher, Murphy and O’Brien. The news was broken by the i-newspaper.
The British Equality and Human Rights Commission said Pontins was “directly discriminating on the basis of race” by refusing to serve guests of a particular ethnic group. Staff are said to have refused or canceled the bookings of people with an Irish name or accent.
Irish travelers are a traditionally nomadic group similar to but ethnically distinguished from gypsies or Roma. They are a recognized ethnic minority in Britain, where many generations have lived, and who have long been discriminated against.
Alastair Pringle, executive director of the Equality Commission, said it was “difficult not to make comparisons” with “the signs displayed in hotel windows 50 years ago that explicitly bar Irish and black people.”
“Forbidding people to use services based on their race is discrimination and is illegal,” he said. “To say that such a policy is outdated is an understatement.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman Jamie Davies said Pontins’ behavior was “completely unacceptable.”
“No one in the UK should be discriminated against because of their race or ethnicity,” he said.
Founded in the 1940s when foreign holidays were a rare occurrence, Pontins offers cheap package holidays by the sea, including accommodation, meals and entertainment. At the firm’s peak, there were about 30 Pontins sites in the UK, but only half a dozen are still operating.
The Equality Commission said Pontins’ owner, Britannia Jinky Jersey Ltd., had signed a legally binding agreement to end its discriminatory practices.
Britannia Jinky Jersey Ltd. Said in a statement that “agreed to work with the Commission for Equality and Human Rights to further expand its staff training and procedures in order to further promote equality in its enterprise.”