Do you often imagine a world without borders and boundaries? As the world travel and tourism industry is bound by visa rules and various other border security regimes, here is one country which has made considerate developments in allowing its citizens to as many as 177 countries without visa.
According to the Visa Restrictions Index 2016, the German passport holders have the most freedom of access to countries compared to all other passports. They were ranked at the first place for the list of the best passports in the world.
The report is published annually by the global leader in residence and citizenship planning, Henely & Partners in partnership with IATA. The rankings were done depending on how many countries a passport holder can travel to without a visa.
The second place was taken by the Sweden passport which allows free access to 176 countries followed by Finland, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom with visa-free access to 175 countries.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States ranked fourth with acceptance in 174 countries.
Singapore maintained the fifth place for the third consecutive year, with its passport accepted in 173 cities and countries worldwide, sharing the same ranking with Japan and Austria this year.
The Malaysian passport, however, dropped from its ninth position last year (with visa free access to 168 countries) to 12th place with the document accepted in 164 countries. It had remained in the “Top 10” for three years before being pushed out this year.
Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan meanwhile, continue to hold the bottom four positions on the Index, with the holders granted visa-free access to only 31, 30, 29, and 25 countries respectively. They thus have again been labeled the worst passports in the world.
According to the report, “the number of countries in the ‘Top 10’ remained static in this year’s Index at 28 countries, with Hungary joining the category after one year of being pushed out, and Malaysia dropping to 12th position after three years in the premier group.”
