South African passport now ranks 55th worldwide

The Henley Global Passport Index for 2022 has been released and South Africans rank 55th out of 112. This system ranks the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

The index is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Coming in at number one is the Japanese passport, with visa-free access to 193 countries worldwide. Japan is followed by Singapore and South Korea, each with access to 192 destinations.

South Africans have visa-free access to 105 destinations. Lastly, Afghanistan places 112th with visa-free access to only 27 countries.

Commenting on the results, Stephen Klimczuk-Massion, Quondam Fellow of Oxford University said that ‘it’s an understatement to say that we are living through a particularly turbulent time worldwide… In this context, a passport is more than ever a calling card, which, depending on which passport you carry and where you are going, will have an impact on the kind of welcome you will receive, where you can go, and how safe you will be when you get there.

‘Now more than ever, it’s a mistake to think of a passport as merely a travel document that allows you to get from A to B. The relative strength or weakness of a particular national passport directly affects the quality of life for the passport holder and may even be a matter of life and death in some circumstances.’

Picture: Getaway gallery

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