The choice of Sri Lanka as British Airways’ top recommendation for travel in 2013 has been criticised as irresponsible and unethical by Labour MP Simon Danczuk.

Mr Danczuk discouraged travel to Sri Lanka in his blog for the Huffington Post, citing the denial of justice to his constituent Khuram Sheikh, who was murdered in 2011, and international concern over human rights violations.

See extracts below:

He was shot and stabbed by a gang of drunken thugs at a hotel overlooking white sands and an azure sea shimmering under the sun. Fringed by palm trees with a warm sea breeze coming off the Indian Ocean, his place of death seemed the perfect holiday, a veritable tropical paradise.

But scratch beneath the idyllic veneer and there is another side to Sri Lanka that you won't find mentioned in glossy holiday brochures. There is a hint of it, though, on the Government's travel advice page at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website.

Here you'll find a warning that sexual attacks in Sri Lanka are increasing. Last year saw 700 child rapes in the first six-months alone with politicians from the country's governing party named as suspects in several cases.

It is not only irresponsible but unethical of BA to be promoting a country with an appalling human rights record that has shown little interest in investigating the murder of a British national at one of their leading resorts.

[more]