If there were a Passport Olympics, Japan would not only host, but win the competition, writes CNN, broadcasting the report compiled by the Henley Index, which has been ranking the value of travel documents of 199 countries since 2006.
According to Henley’s researchers, international mobility in the first quarter of 2021 was only 12% of its pre-pandemic level, meaning that “the gap between the theoretical and actual approaches to travel offered by even good passports is still significant”.
The list of the top 10 passports is virtually unchanged. Japan is again at the top of the list. The passport of this Asian country opens the door to 193 countries around the world. That’s on paper. In reality, due to restrictions, Japanese passport holders currently have access to less than 80% of the world’s destinations.
Singapore remains in second place with visa-free access to 192 countries, followed by South Korea, which shares third place with Germany, with 191 countries.
Finland, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain are in 4th place, Austria and Denmark are in 5th place, while France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden are in 6th place together.
The United States and Great Britain are in 7th place, along with Switzerland, Belgium and New Zealand. The value of the US and British passports has gradually decreased since 2014. In theory, the US and UK passport holders can travel to187 destinations visa-free, but in reality they have access to around 60 and 61 destinations respectively.
The Czech Republic, Greece, Malta and Norway are in 8th place, Australia and Canada are in 9th place and Hungary is in 10th place.
Serbia is in 38th place on this list. According to the report, a Serbian passport allows visa-free entry to 139 countries.
If we look at the ranking of the countries of the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia ranks first, with a high 12th place, because the country’s passport allows visa-free entry to 182 countries without a visa. Croatia is in a better position than Serbia. Its passport allows entry to 173 countries in the world without a visa, which is good enough for 17th place.
North Macedonia is worse off (46th place, possible visa-free entry into 126 countries), then Montenegro (47th place, possible entry into 124 countries without a visa) and finally Bosnia and Herzegovina (53rd place, possible entry into 117 countries without a visa).
At the back, the worst positions are held by countries whose passports allow visa-free entry to fewer than 40 countries worldwide. These are North Korea, Nepal and Palestine.
(N1, 11.07.2021)
This post is also available in: Italiano