20 January 2021 • 0

Portuguese passport among world’s ‘top 10’

Holders of a Portuguese passport are afforded visa-free entry to 186 countries. This sees the Portuguese passport among the world’s ‘top 10’ in a ranking that does not take ‘temporary Covid measures into account’.

Explain reports, the Portuguese passport comes in in 6th place, along with that of Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

The annual ranking compiled by Henley & Partners is led by the second year running by Japan (with a passport allowing visa-free entry to 191 countries), and followed by Singapore (190 countries), Germany and South Korea (189), Italy, Finland, Spain and Luxembourg all in fourth place (188 countries), Denmark and Austria (187) in 5th place and then Portugal, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Ireland in 6th.

The UK’s passport – once considered the finest in the world – has fallen to 7th place, sharing the position with Switzerland, the United States, Norway, Belgium and New Zealand (all able to enter 185 countries without visas).

Greece, Malta, the Czech Republic and Australia are in 8th place (184 countries); Canada in 9th (183) and Hungary in 10th (giving holders of its passports visa-free access to 182 countries).

Of course, none of this means a great deal now at a moment when most people in the world have to think twice about whether pandemic-led rules and regulations will allow them to leave their homes to buy a loaf of bread. But Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, says the ranking provides ‘an opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary upheaval that characterized 2020’.

“Just a year ago all indications were that the rates of global mobility would continue to rise, that travel freedom would increase, and that holders of powerful passports would enjoy more access than ever before, ” he said.

“The global lockdown negated these glowing projections, and as restrictions begin to lift, the results from the latest index are a reminder of what passport power really means in a world upended by the pandemic.