FIFI PETERS: As all of us get used to travelling once more it’s in all probability helpful to know the way far the South African passport can take you, hassle- and visa-free. To speak about how robust it is and the way different passports on the continents additionally stack up, in addition to in the remainder of the world, I’m joined by Amanda Smit, the head of South, East and Central Africa at Henley & Partners.
Amanda, thanks a lot to your time. I used to be simply the index this yr that measures an entire lot of passports – 199 passports throughout 227 journey locations, I’m informed. Seeing that South Africa’s passport is the third-strongest in Africa after Mauritius and the Seychelles, primarily based on this yr’s index, discuss to us about that and the way this yr’s outcomes evaluate to final yr’s.
AMANDA SMIT: Hi, good night. Thank you very a lot for having me and good night to your listeners as properly. So sure, if we have a look at the African international locations at the second, and which of them are literally sitting with the most powerful passports, the Seychelles undoubtedly has the most powerful passport on the African continent with visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to about 153 locations. That’s out of 227 locations worldwide, and it’s presently ranked in twenty eighth place on the worldwide index that measures world mobility and journey freedom.
To put this in context, the most powerful passport in the world is the Japanese passport, presently with record-breaking entry to 193 locations. In second place on the African continent is Mauritius with 146 locations, rating at thirty third place. That is adopted by South Africa with entry to 105 locations, rating quantity 55, underneath ……2:05 passport index.
So if we evaluate that to what we’ve seen in the previous, there has really been little or no actual motion on the index, particularly throughout the Covid pandemic, as a consequence of the distinctive journey restrictions in place worldwide over the previous two years. South Africa has risen by just one rank in the index since 2021, when it sat at 56th place. And the Seychelles has additionally risen by just one rank. But Mauritius has stayed agency at thirty third place on the rating.
FIFI PETERS: How is that decided, although – simply the variety of international locations you can journey to visa-free for a respective nation? What goes into that willpower?
AMANDA SMIT: That is an authentic rating of all the world’s passports, and it’s primarily based on unique and official knowledge from the International Air Transport Association. It actually is measured primarily based on the variety of locations that the holder of that passport can entry and not using a prior visa.
FIFI PETERS: Perhaps put in a different way, what provides Seychelles and Mauritius, for example, such a excessive rating? And the likes of Afghanistan – I see that Afghanistan is the least powerful passport in phrases of the variety of international locations you can entry and not using a visa. What distinguishes them?
AMANDA SMIT: Obviously the rating is primarily based on visa-free entry. So if we have a look at all the international locations in the world with all of their passports, primary at the second clearly is Japan, as a result of they’ll entry nearly all of the international locations in the world, 193 out of 227 locations. And then after all, should you have a look at South Africa, for instance, we’re at quantity 55 in the world as a result of we will solely entry 105. And then Afghanistan can solely entry 27 locations in the world visa-free. That actually is the solely figuring out issue.
So once we see a shift in rating, for instance from one yr to a different, it’s probably not a lot a case of the passport dropping energy, but it surely is extra a case of the increased passport gaining energy after which overtaking the different counterparts, placing them at a decrease rating in phrases of locations.
FIFI PETERS: What makes that occur, then? How do sure international locations improve the energy of their passport?
AMANDA SMIT: There are many visa waivers and processes in place, and there could possibly be many drivers. It could possibly be primarily based on commerce relations, for instance. It could possibly be simply the restrictions put in place. Obviously we’ve seen huge adjustments throughout the Covid pandemic, where many international locations blocked sure different nations from coming into. It was nevertheless very short-term at the time, but it surely had an enormous discount in the passport energy at the time. There are many elements that may result in that. So it’s both international locations gaining extra visa-free entry by means of reciprocal relationships with different international locations, or some closing down due to a wide range of causes.
FIFI PETERS: All proper. Amanda, thanks a lot for these insights. I assumed it was actually fascinating and I hope the listeners had been additionally in that dialog. But we’ll depart it there. Amanda Smit, the head of South, East and Central Africa at Henley & Partners has been discussing passport energy.