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It’s been a rough ride for South African passport holders over the last few decades. From being labelled as the a**holes of the planet in the 70s and 80s to being eyed as ‘dodgy’ during the Zuma years, rocking the Green Mamba has sometimes felt like swimming with a weight around your neck.
Fortunately, our fortunes and presidents have changed and the South African passport is now the strongest it has been for a decade, ranking among the top 50 in the world for the first time since 2014.
The good news comes as Henley & Partners’ annual Henley Passport Index ranks the world’s passports according to the number of destinations they can access visa-free.
The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the largest travel information database – and enhanced by Henley & Partners’ research. According to this data, South Africans can access 106 global destinations visa-free or by obtaining a visa on arrival. This secured the country’s 48th place in Henley & Partners’ ranking.
Many of these visa-free destinations are fellow developing countries in Africa and South America, with a handful of Middle Eastern countries on the list.
South Africans can also travel to a few popular Asian holiday destinations visa-free, including Vietnam and Thailand, while travellers to Indonesia require a visa on arrival.
In comparison, the world’s strongest passport, Singapore, offers 195 visa-free destinations, including visa-free access to some of the world’s most developed countries, such as the USA, all Western European states, Australia and Japan.
Several European countries—France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—drop two spots in the list to third place, joined by Finland and South Korea. These countries each dropped one spot in the last year and now have visa-free access to 192 locations.
The rest of the Top 10 is dominated by European countries, except for Australia (6th place with 189 destinations), Canada (7th place with 188 destinations), and the United States (9th place with 186 destinations).
On the opposite end of the ‘mobility spectrum’, Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the Passport Index, with visa-free access to two countries ending in 2024. This represents the biggest ‘mobility disparity’ in the index’s 19-year history, with Singaporeans able to visit 169 more visa-free places than Afghan passport holders.
Since dropping to 35th place on the ranking in 2009, the South African passport hovered around the 50th ranking in the world, with a short dip to 58 in 2021. Moving up to the top 50 bodes well for international travellers, but experts are warning that Trump is likely to make good on his promises to further restrict immigration policies.
Never a fan of Africa, Trump’s administration might force US allies to be stricter on travel from African countries as well, potentially diminishing the power of passports from the continent.
Henley & Partners said this would likely result in ‘African countries relying more heavily on neighbouring states and Asian counterparts for trade and travel’. This move could however be a double-edged sword and weaken the almighty US passport as well.
You can check out the full list of countries rolling out the welcome mat for South Africans here.
[Source: Daily Investor]