France Relaxes Advisory on Travel to Sri Lanka

The French government has announced that it has eased the travel advisory for Sri Lanka.

In this regard, the revised Travel Advisory has been reduced from “only recommending essential travel” to “exercise caution”SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

According to the travel update, French citizens have been asked to maintain strong vigilance during their trip to Sri Lanka and, in any case, to avoid regrouping, mainly of a political nature, by keeping themselves regularly informed of developments in the situation.

In addition, they are required to use a local travel agency for any travel in the country’s territory, which will also be able to best manage fuel for registered tour vehicles.

“Sri Lanka is currently experiencing a serious economic and political crisis. Significant shortages affect the whole country. They relate in particular to fuel, strongly restricting travel on the island. It is still difficult to obtain gasoline for tourists travelling on their own. Public transport, both public and private (bus, train), is heavily affected by this situation and operates erratically. Daily power cuts are also applied but tend to be less severe than in recent months, throughout the territory,” the travel advisory noted.

The revised travel update also says that the mass demonstrations on July 9, which were generally peaceful, triggered an important phase of political transition for the country with the appointment of a new president in Sri Lanka.

Previously, like France, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also asked its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Sri Lanka due to recent civil unrest and economic problems.

Through a statement, the Ministry also emphasized that the decision has come due to the ongoing social and political unrest and the deep economic crisis Sri Lanka is facing.

As the Norwegian MFA explains, various demonstrations about this situation have taken place in many parts of the Sri Lanka.

The Ministry also said that even the embassy in Colombo has limited options to assist Norwegians in an emergency, encouraging them to follow developments and fully assess their safety in case they need to travel to Sri Lanka.

Moreover, the Norwegian government has recommended that all citizens planning a trip download the Travel Ready app to find up-to-date information on around 200 countries.

Considering the economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka, there have been very large protests, demonstrations and political rallies. There have also been numerous incidents of violent clashes in public places throughout the country that have resulted in many deaths and hospitalization.