From the earlier years of this research to the previously published 2022 study, global mobility has increased considerably. In 2006, an average of 57 countries could be travelled without a visa. Today, that number is 107, almost twofold. “However,” said the report’s authors, “this apparent progress masks a growing gap in mobility and the resulting access to opportunities between citizens in the rich north and those in the low-income south, with many fragile states.” Japanese, Swedish or US passport holders can travel to more than 180 destinations without a visa, while those from Angola, Cameroon and Laos can only enter about 50.
The ‘power’ of a passport is essentially assessed by one statistic: how many countries can be immigrated without a visa? With the explosion of coronavirus cases due to the Omicron variant, airlines all across the world are encountering record cancellations. Amid an infection wave that has to blow its employees and affected undertakings. The Henley Passport Index scrutinizes the global tangibility of this document every three months since 2006, which has rendered this ranking an unquestioned benchmark.
The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the biggest, most meticulous travel information on the database. It includes 199 passports and 227 destinations. The Henley Passport Index for the first quarter of 2022, propagated below, indicates the dominance of EU countries, although Japan and Singapore top the rankings.
The following is the Henley Passport Index has issued a list of the world’s most powerful passports for 2022:
- Japan 🇯🇵, Singapore 🇸🇬 (access to 192 destinations)
- Germany 🇩🇪, South Korea 🇰🇷(190)
- Finland 🇫🇮, Italy 🇮🇹, Luxembourg 🇱🇺, Spain 🇪🇸 (189)
- Austria 🇦🇹, Denmark 🇩🇰, France 🇫🇷, Netherlands 🇳🇱, Sweden 🇸🇪 (188)
- Ireland 🇮🇪, Portugal 🇵🇹 (187)
- Belgium 🇧🇪, New Zealand 🇳🇿, Norway 🇳🇴, Switzerland 🇨🇭, United Kingdom 🇬🇧, United States 🇺🇸 (186)
- Australia 🇦🇺, Canada 🇨🇦, Czech Republic 🇨🇿, Greece 🇬🇷, Malta (185)
- Poland 🇵🇱, Hungary 🇭🇺 (183)
- Lithuania 🇱🇹, Slovakia 🇸🇰 (182)
- Estonia 🇪🇪, Latvia 🇱🇻, Slovenia 🇸🇮 (181)
- Belgium has the 6th most powerful passport
Belgium occupies the sixth position in the list. Most passports tend to be moderately uniform in design. They’re often burgundy, black, or blue in colour and they might comprise a neat version of the symbol of a nation. But that won’t be the case for Belgians come February 7 — the country will now publish passports characterized by images of its comic strip heroes, from Tintin to the Smurfs. Belgian passport holders will now be eligible to flick through the pages of their new document and spot some of the nation’s most beloved fictional characters, encompassing Lucky Luke and Blake and Mortimer alongside Hergé’s outstanding boy reporter and the blue Smurfs that have long been famous amongst children across the world.
In a press release, Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès said the fresh passport is “even more secure thanks to new security and personalization techniques” and added that it will be “recognizable thanks to its original design, which honours one of the jewels of our culture: the heroines and heroes of comic strips.”
She also underlined the reinforcement in the quality and security of the passport but acknowledged that the cost would not improve, which she called a strong gesture that will be cost-beneficial for our citizens.
Belgian travellers will be accompanied by Hergé’s design along with the other comic strip figures that the country is renowned for producing.
Feature Image: Bloomberg.com
