No change in British travel advisory

25 August 2012 04:50 am

Despite protests by the Sri Lankan Government, the British Foreign Office has updated its travel advisory without any amendments to the text.

“Violent crimes against foreigners are relatively infrequent, although there have been an increasing number of reports of sexual offences including on minors,” the advisory states. “There remains a heightened level of security (checkpoints, road blocks) throughout the country. You should exercise a high level of vigilance. The risk for the most part is one of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. To minimise this, you should avoid military, government and paramilitary locations.”

The advisory which was updated on Thursday on the British Foreign Office website had no changes despite Monday’s discussion between External Affairs Minister G.L Peiris and British High Commissioner John Rankin.

At this meeting the minister had requested that the advisory last updated on August 14 be amended to reflect the security developments throughout the country. The minister had also pointed out that there was no justification for the manner in which violence in the country was portrayed. (DS)