Our neighboring country Sri Lanka is in a severe economic crisis. In this case, the British Foreign Office, a European country, issued a statement yesterday: There is a severe shortage of medicine, cooking gas and essential items in Sri Lanka.
Fuel shortages have affected transport, commerce and emergency services. There are daily power cuts. In such circumstances, people should avoid going to Sri Lanka unnecessarily, it said.
Britain issued a similar report a few months ago. The announcement was withdrawn in May as Sri Lanka claimed that ‘tourist arrivals will be affected’.
The Pacific country of New Zealand has also advised its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Sri Lanka. “Due to the shortage of essential goods, various incidents of violence are happening in Sri Lanka, so don’t go to that country unnecessarily,” New Zealand said.
Canada, Australia and the European Union have already announced to avoid travel to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s important tourism revenue has been hampered by Corona. Also wrong policies of the government led to shortage of foreign exchange. As a result, Sri Lanka is unable to import essential goods and unable to increase domestic production.