BAHRAIN has moved up six places in an index that ranks the world’s most powerful passports.
The kingdom is ranked at 57 in the latest Henley Passport Index compared to 63 last year, and 62 in 2022.
The latest ranking compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. It is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Bahrain’s passport enables holders to travel to 87 visa-free destinations, according to the ranking.
In addition, Bahrain’s ranking this year is the highest since the index’s inception in 2006 when it was placed at 59.
The index helps understand the relationship between a country’s openness to foreigners – how many nations it
allows to cross its borders visa-free – and its own citizens’ travel freedom.
The UAE makes it into the Top 10 for the first time, having added an impressive 152 destinations since 2006 to achieve its current visa-free score of 185, and rising a remarkable 53 places in the ranking from 62 to nine.
Qatar is ranked at 46 with access to 107 visa-free destinations; Kuwait is placed at 49 with access to 99 visa-free countries; Saudi Arabia finds itself at 56 with visa-free access to 88 countries and Oman is ranked at 58 with its holders allowed to travel to 86 visa-free destinations.
Singapore shared the top spot on the index with its citizens now enjoying visa-free access to 195 travel destinations out of 227. France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain drop to joint second place, each with visa-free access to 192 destinations, and an unprecedented seven-nation cohort, each with access to 191 destinations without a prior visa – Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden – now sit in third in the ranking.
The UK hangs onto fourth place along with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, despite its visa-free destination score falling to 190.
The US, on the other hand, continues its now decade-long slide down the index, dropping down to eighth spot, with access to just 186 destinations visa-free. Furthermore, the report highlights that while American passport holders can access 186 (out of 227) destinations visa-free, the US itself allows only 45 other nationalities to pass through its borders visa-free.
Former passport powerhouses, the UK and the US, jointly held first place on the index 10 years ago, in 2014.
Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched as the country with the world’s weakest passport, losing access to yet
another destination over the past six months, leaving its citizens with access to only 26 countries visa-free – the lowest score ever recorded in the history of the 19-year-old index.
Commenting in the July 2024 edition of the Henley Global Mobility Report, Henley & Partners chairman and the inventor of the passport index concept Dr Christian H Kaelin said: “The general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024.
“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 a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan.”
Interestingly, both China and Ukraine are among the Top 10 countries that have climbed the highest in the ranking over the past decade.
Since 2014, China has jumped up 24 places from 83rd to 59th (with access to 85 destinations visa-free), while Ukraine has advanced by 23 spots, from 53rd to 30th, with its nationals able to visit 148 destinations without a prior visa. Russia, on the other hand, has fallen seven places over the past 10 years, from 38th to 45th position (with visa-free access to just 116 destinations).
The biggest faller over the last decade is Venezuela, which has plunged 17 places from 25th to 42nd on the index.
Yemen has tumbled 15 places to sit at 100, while both Nigeria and Syria have fallen 13 places to 92nd and 102nd, respectively.
Bangladesh comes in as the fifth-biggest faller, dropping 11 places from 86th to 97th position over the past 10
years.
At the bottom of the index, three countries score zero, permitting no visa-free access for any passport: namely, Afghanistan, North Korea and Turkmenistan.
Other data shows that Africa tops the list of European Union visa rejections.
This is based on a new research conducted for Henley & Partners. School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute adjunct professor Mehari Taddele Maru and Johns Hopkins University in Italy compared Schengen visa rejection rates for African applicants to those from other regions.
The results showed that around three in 10 or 30 per cent of African Schengen visa applicants were rejected, compared to one in 10 applicants worldwide, despite the continent having the lowest number of visa applications per capita.
“While factors such as per capita income, the incidence of illegal overstays and the low rate of return and readmission of Africans illegally present in Europe partially explain these higher rejection rates, they do not fully account for the significantly greater restrictions against African Schengen visa applicants, and, for that matter, the passport strength itself,” said Prof Maru.
He goes on to point out that “Africans face a triple whammy: lower passport power, higher visa rejection rates, and consequently, limited economic mobility.”
The GDN reported in April that Bahrain’s e-passport won the iF Design Award 2024 for the communication and publishing category in Germany.
Established in 1953, the award is among the oldest and most prestigious global design awards. It received more than 11,000 entries annually from all over the world, and the winning of the e-passport is considered a significant milestone to add to the kingdom’s design and creativity records.
The e-passport of Bahrain incorporates modern security features and high technologies, some of which are used for the first time in passports.
The Regula organisation, a pioneer international organisation in ID and passport authentication and verification, asserted last year that Bahrain’s e-passport is one of the most beautiful passports in the world.
The report indicated that one of the most prominent features of the Bahraini passport is the distinctive touches on its pages through ultraviolet rays, which show the important astronomical landmarks that can be seen in the Bahraini sky, including the major constellations and stars.
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