KARACHI: The Pakistani passport has once again been ranked as the world’s fourth-worst (100th position out of 103) in the world, according to the Global Mobility Report 2023 published by Henley & Partners on Tuesday.
While the position of the country remains unchanged from last year’s ranking, Singapore has overtaken Japan and now enjoys the title of the world’s most powerful passport.
The global passport ranking is based on the number of countries/ destinations passport holders can access without a prior visa. Its score reflects the number of destinations where a country’s passport holders can have visa-free access.
Singapore has a score of 192, which means Singaporean passport holders can now enjoy visa-free entry to 192 destinations out of 227 in the world. The Pakistani passport offers visa-free entry to 33 destinations.
Japan, which topped the 2022 list, now stands on the third spot. Its passport holders can now access 189 countries without a visa, a significant drop from the earlier 193. Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea and Sweden join Japan in third place with access to 189 destinations without a prior visa.
Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan have become the world’s weakest passports with a score of 29, 30 and 27 respectively. Pakistan’s archrival and neighbour India ranks 80th, and its passport holders can have visa-free access to 57 destinations.
Pakistani passport holders can travel to these locations without a visa: Barbados, Cook Islands, Micronesia, Niue, Vanuatu, Dominica, Haiti, Montserrat, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. They can enjoy the visa-on-arrival facility in these countries: Palau Islands, Samoa, Tuvalu, Qatar, Cambodia, Maldives, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Burundi, Cape Verde Islands, Comoro Islands, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Tanzania, and Togo. The new entrant in the list is Barbados.
The press statement by Henley & Partners says general trend over the history of the 18-year-old ranking has been towards greater travel freedom, with the average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023.
However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access 165 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan.
