The latest global mobility index for 2022 has found that the SA passport, which this year ranks as the 55th most powerful in the world, allows citizens visa-free entry to 105 countries in the world.
Published by Henley & Partners — authors of the Henley Passport Index — the research shows that up to 2022, Japan has the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 193 countries without a prior visa. South Korea and Singapore come in joint second place, with their citizens able to visit 192 countries.
The Henley Passport Index, which has been published by global investment migration firm Henley & Partners since 2006, draws from data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA), including 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.
According to research commissioned by the firm into the determinants of passport power, the gains made by wealthier countries in travel freedom have come at the expense of poorer countries, which have experienced mounting barriers to entry in recent years.
Henley’s studies show that while citizens of upper middle- and high-income countries have achieved visa-free access to most nations, citizens of lower middle- and low-income countries enjoy far less travel freedom because they are deemed to be high-risk when it comes to security, asylum and overstaying.
The US ranks in seventh place, still yielding considerable power, with its citizens able to enter 186 countries without major restrictions — the same level of freedom as Belgian, New Zealand, Norwegian and Swiss passport holders have.
Down at the bottom of the list, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria rank as the most restricted countries. Last place is held by the Afghan passport that can access only 27 destinations without a visa, then Iraq with 29 and Syria with just 30.
The global mobility gap, Henley said, is the widest it has been since the index’s inception.
There has been a significant uptake in travellers wanting to visit foreign destinations. The UK has put out an official notice that there is a backlog and delay in processing visa applications for South Africans.
— Fedhasa national chairperson Rosemary Anderson
SA’s ranking in 55th place is one notch up from last year’s placing. Since 2006, when the index was started, the Green Mamba, as our passport is known, has moved from a high of 35th place in 2008 and 2009, dropping to 47th place in 2010. Since then the general trajectory has been downward to 56th place in 2021 — our lowest rating ever.
Rosemary Anderson, national chairperson of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa), said while SA ranking at 55 was “acceptable”, government needed to do more to reduce passport fraud to improve the rating.
“We are still paying the price for not managing this in the past — the UK warned us about passport fraud for a number of years, but we did not heed the warnings and the UK eventually introduced the compulsory visa system for SA citizens visiting the UK,” she said.
Anderson said a proper eVisa system would improve the processing of applications by taking human intervention out of the process.
She said there were backlogs in visa applications for South Africans wanting to travel to countries where there are restrictions .
“The reasons supplied for this are backlogs due to Covid and then the bigger demand due to ‘revenge travel’ — where there has been a significant uptake in travellers wanting to visit foreign destinations. The UK has put out an official notice that there is a backlog and delay in processing visa applications for South Africans,” she said.
Anderson said SA’s own eVisa system was still not up and running properly — something that is needed if we want to be competitive by making it “logistically easier and for tourists to visit our shores, including new markets that have opened up to us such as digital nomads.
“Currently we are doing the opposite,” she said.
Anderson said Fedhasa and other industry bodies had presented a detailed action plan document, laying out what needed to be done to increase international tourism to SA, which could “ create millions of new jobs”.
As of this month, these are the 105 countries South Africans can visit without restrictions:
AFRICA: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde Islands, Comores Islands, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Reunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, St. Helena, Swaziland (Eswatini), Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
ASIA: Asia, Cambodia, Hong Kong (SAR China), Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste.
EUROPE: Georgia, Russian Federation, Kosovo.
OCEANIA: Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Niue, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
MIDDLE EAST: Armenia, Iran, Jordan, Qatar, Israel.
CARIBBEAN: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos.
AMERICAS: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela.
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