Bahrain has maintained its position for the second consecutive year in a global ranking of the world’s passports.
The kingdom is ranked 63rd with a score of 82, being the number of destinations Bahraini passport-holders can access without a prior visa.
The Henley Passport Index 2020, which analysed passports of 199 nations, released its rankings yesterday.
POWERFUL
The study is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Among the GCC countries, the UAE is ranked 18th followed by Kuwait (57), Qatar (58), Bahrain (63), Oman (64) and Saudi Arabia (66).
However, Bahrain’s passport is more powerful than China, India, Thailand, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, among other countries.
According to the index, holders of Bahraini passports are entitled to travel to 82 countries without requiring a pre-entry visa.
Bahrain’s passport rankings have fluctuated over the years with it being ranked 59th in 2006 and 71st in 2015.
However, since 2015 the ranking has improved after it was ranked 66th in 2017, 64th in 2018 and 63rd in 2019 and this year.
Meanwhile, Asian countries have firmly established their lead on the index, released by US-based Henley and Partners, a global leader in residence and citizenship planning.
For the third consecutive year, Japan has secured the top spot with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 191.
Singapore held on to the second place with a score of 190, while South Korea dropped down a rank to third place alongside Germany, with access to 189 destinations.
The US and the UK continue their downward trajectory.
While both countries remained in the top 10, their shared eighth-place position was a significant decline from the number one spot they jointly held in 2015.
Afghanistan remained at the bottom of the index (107), with access to only 26 destinations worldwide, followed by Iraq (106) and Syria (105).
“Japanese passport-holders are able to access 165 more destinations than Afghan nationals,” said Henley and Partners chairman Dr Christian Kaelin.
“Analysis of our historical data reveals that this extraordinary global mobility gap is the starkest it’s been since the index’s inception in 2006.”
Elsewhere in the top 10, Finland and Italy shared fourth place, with a score of 188, while Denmark, Luxembourg, and Spain together held fifth place, with a score of 187.
The index’s success story remained the UAE, which has climbed a remarkable 47 places over the past 10 years and now sits in 18th place.
Henley and Partners chief executive Dr Juerg Steffen said countries with citizenship-by-investment programmes continued to consolidate their positions on the index.
COMPETITION
“Demand is accelerating, just as the supply has grown globally, with both nations and wealthy individuals viewing these programmes as an absolute requirement in a volatile world where competition for capital is fierce,” he said.
“Malta currently sits in ninth place, with access to 183 destinations, while Montenegro holds on to 46th place, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 124.
“In the Caribbean, St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda have secured 27th and 30th spots, respectively.”
sandy@gdn.com.bh
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