The Best and Worst Passports in the World
A new Index from Henley & Partners reports on the power of passports, judging the top passports in the world by the amount of visa-free travel they entitle their owner to.
For 2016, the Index found that Germans held the most powerful passports in the world for the third year in a row, closely followed by a slew of other European nations and the United States, Japan and Canada. The least powerful passport listed is from Afghanistan.
The UK dropped from first to third place this year, after three consecutive years in first place.
A larger group of countries sit in third place, with Finland, France, Italy, Spain and the UK all having visa-free access to 175 countries.
Within the Arab region, the UAE’s passport has been ranked first for the second year in a row in the Visa Restrictions Index 2016.
The UAE has risen by two spots to 38, with visa-free access to 122 countries.
In 2015, UAE signed an agreement with the EU, which gave the country visa-free travel to 36 countries, including the 26 Schengen countries, making the UAE the first Arab country to be granted a European visa waiver.
Other GCC states too improved their standings in this year’s Index. Kuwait (57) and Qatar (60) both increased by six places, with visa-free access to 82 and 79 countries, respectively.
Bahrain (65), Oman (67) and Saudi Arabia (69) followed closely behind, with visa-free access to 73, 71 and 69 countries, respectively.
According to the Index, Four countries in particular made huge gains; Tonga rising 16 spots, Palau by 20, Colombia by 25 and Timor Leste, a Southeast Asian nation, being the highest climber with an increase of 33 ranks.
In addition to Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq and continue to hold the bottom four positions on the Index, and have again been labeled the worst passports in the world.
Read the full report at http://www.visaindex.com/#
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