Henley & Partners, a global citizenship and residence advisory firm, released this week its ranking of the world's most powerful passports. The index ranks the world's passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Henley Passport Index ranks the world's passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. On Tuesday, the British firm Henley & Partners unveiled its passport ranking for the second half of 2019. According to data compiled by IATA, the Moroccan passport is ranked 83rd, alongside Benin. The index, which includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations, reveals that Moroccan passport holders can travel to 61 countries without having to obtain «a visa on arrival, a visitor's permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) upon entry». Passports' scores are based on «the total number of destinations that the holder can access visa-free», the authors of the index wrote. In Africa, Morocco is ranked 16th, positioned behind South Africa (54th in the world) which allows its citizens to access 99 destinations visa-free, topping the list of African countries included in the report. South Africa is followed by Botswana (ranked 64th in the world with 82 destinations) and Namibia (68th in the world with 76 destination). Morocco ranks second in the Maghreb region In the Maghreb region, Morocco is ranked second behind Tunisia, 77th in the world with 67 visa-free destinations. Mauritania, 86th in the world, comes third, allowing its citizens to access 58 visa-free destinations. The Algerian passport (94th in the world) is ranked 4th in the region with 58 visa-free destinations. Libya is at the bottom of the ranking with only 37 visa-free destinations. The country is ranked 103rd in the World, the report shows. The Henley & Partners index is topped by European passports, which occupy the top 20 places of the ranking. Asian passports are also at the top of the ranking. Indeed, Singapore and Japan are ranked first as their passports grant access to 189 destinations without prior visa. South Korea ranks second next to Germany and Finland (187 destinations), Denmark, Italy and Luxembourg are third (186 destinations) while France, Spain and Sweden are fourth with 185 visa-free destinations. At bottom the ranking, there is Pakistan (106th) with 30 destinations, followed by Syria (107th, 29 destinations), Iraq (108th, 27 destinations) and Afghanistan (109th, 25 destinations). «With a few notable exceptions, the latest rankings from the Henley Passport Index show that countries around the world increasingly view visa-openness as crucial to economic and social progress», Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners and the creator of the passport index said.
