UK’s misinformation on SL raised in UK Parliament

• British Lord urges UK to update travel advisory on SL with accurate info
• Says UK inaccurately mentions ongoing protests, fuel shortages, and terrorist threats that do not currently exist  

By Sunil Jayasiri  
British Conservative peer Lord Michael Naseby on Tuesday called on the British government to assist Sri Lanka by way of updating Britain’s Travel Advisory on Sri Lanka to provide more accurate information, in order to better assist the country.   

“It is the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) comments on that country (Sri Lanka) that currently cause me concern because they refer to the fact that protests are going on when they are not. They say that there is a fuel shortage, but there is not and has not been for 18 months. They also say that there are other difficulties of a terrorist nature, which we have not had for five years,” Lord Naseby told the House of Lords that held a seven-hour debate on Britain’s Foreign Affairs.  
Claiming that tourism sector is rapidly recovering in Sri Lanka, Lord Naseby believed that more British tourists would visit the country if the FCDO provided more accurate Travel Advisory information on Sri Lanka.  

While commending the progress of the Sri Lanka’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Lord Naseby highlighted the standard of those in Sri Lanka’s legal profession, as evidenced by his good friend, the late Sir Desmond De Silva, and said that ‘the quality of lawyers in Sri Lanka is second to none’. “As it is set up, it will of course be across the ethnic groups—it has to be. There are people there who are thoroughly objective, he added.