Bahrain climbs to 59th position in latest Henley Passport Index

TDT | Manama                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Julia Cassano

Bahrain now ranks in 59th place according to the latest Henley Passport Index released, improving on the 61st position it held in the previous index. In 2021, Bahrain ranked 69th, meaning that the Kingdom has now climbed 10 positions since then.

Bahrainis now have visa-free access or visas-on-arrival to 88 destinations around the world, passing Oman and Saudi Arabia on the index. The Henley Index highlighted that GCC countries have generally displayed higher-than-average shifts towards increased openness.

The UAE passport ranking, the most powerful in the Gulf states in 12th position, gives citizens visa-free entry to 179 countries around the world. Qatar ranked in 52nd place, giving its citizens access to 103 countries, and Kuwait in 54th with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 99 countries.

Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, said, "The UAE has added an impressive 107 destinations to its visa-free score since 2013, resulting in a massive leap of 44 places in the ranking over the past 10 years from 56th to 12th position."

The Henley Passport Index is the original and most authoritative passport index, with historical data spanning 18 years, and ranks the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

The index and its contests are based on data provided by the International Air Transport Authority (IATA), supplemented, enhanced, and updated using extensive in-house research and open-source data.

Who holds the top positions?

Japan has been knocked off the top spot for the first time in five years, leaving Singapore as the official most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 destinations out of 227 visa-free.

Germany, Italy, and Spain all move up into 2nd place with visa-free access to 190 destinations, and Japanese passport holders join Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden in 3rd place with access to 189 destinations without a prior visa.

Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom placed 4th, with access to 188 destinations. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland ranked 5th, with visa-free access to 187 countries.

However, a remarkable turn was taken by the US, which continued its now decade-long slide down the index, plummeting a further two places to 8th place with access to just 184 countries. Both the UK and the US jointly held first place on the index nearly 10 years ago but have been on a downward trajectory ever since.

The lowest-ranked Afghanistan remains entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index, with visa-free access to only 27 destinations, followed by Iraq (29 destinations) and Syria (30 destinations).