UK advises against travel to Sri Lanka

The UK government has reissued its warning against all but essential travel to the Indian Ocean country.

All British citizens are advised not to travel to Sri Lanka due to the severe economic crisis triggering civil conflict.

As the state faces the worst crisis in the last 70 years and lacks basic goods, including medicines, gas, fuel and food, the situation led to angry protests and violence among the country’s population. The nation also recently faced state of emergency due to the general unrest. According to the Sri Lankan authorities, the situation can be explained by looking at the country’s tourism sector, almost destroyed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The UK government has recently reissued its warning against all but essential travel to Sri Lanka, as the last travel advice was valid from 13th of May to 10th of June.

According to the Foreign Office, holidaymakers ignoring the travel warning could experience "demonstrations, roadblocks and violent unrest at short notice" while visiting Sri Lanka. Moreover, as the Association of British Insurers explained, visiting a destination against Foreign Office advice can likely lead to travel insurance invalidation.

Almost 200.000 Britons visited Sri Lanka in 2019, while during the pandemic, in 2020, only 55.455 holidaymakers from the UK travelled to the Asian country.

 

 

Source: bbc.com