India slipped two places in 2020 to the 84th place, sharing the spot with Mauritania and Tajikistan. Indians can get visa-free entry to 58 countries, according to the index.
The Henley Passport Index, which periodically measures the world’s most travel-friendly passports, released its first report of the new decade on Wednesday. The index placed Japan as the world’s most powerful passport, while Singapore took the second spot. South Korea tied with Germany for the third spot.
Japanese who hold the strongest passport in the world can visit 191 destinations without visa. The year 2020 marks the third year running in which Japan has held the top spot.
India slipped two places in 2020 to the 84th place, sharing the spot with Mauritania and Tajikistan. Indians can get visa-free entry to 58 countries, according to the index.
The Index, which is a ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa, placed Pakistan on the 104th position. Pakistani passport holders can have visa-free access to 32 countries.
Last year the Pakistani passport had been ranked as the fifth-worst passport to hold.
The Pakistani passport only ranks better than the passports of only three other countries: Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It shares the fourth spot with Somalia.
The United States dropped two places to eighth place and tagged along with United Kingdom, Norway, Greece and Belgium. Meanwhile, Canada ranked ninth. Ten years ago, the UK held the number-one spot on the index, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 166.
Prasanta Patnaik