Bangladesh 101st in passport index improving 3 notches

Bangladesh has been ranked 101st in the 2023 edition of the Henley Passport Index improving three notches from the previous year.

The Passport Index features a total of 109 positions with some countries' passports sharing the same ranking as Bangladesh shares the 101st position with Kosovo and Libya, reports BSS.

With the 101st position, Bangladeshi citizens are now able to get visa-free access to 41 destinations worldwide.

Bangladesh was ranked 104th in 2022. As per the latest index, India remains in 85th Position. 

The latest results from the Henley Passport Index provide fascinating insights into a world characterized by extraordinary upheaval and offer a revealing look at what lies ahead, according to a press release of Henley and Partners uploaded on its website on Wednesday. 

For the fifth year running, Japan crowns the Henley Passport Index, which is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 

It is the original ranking of all the world's passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Japanese citizens are now able to visit an astonishing 193 destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free, while South Koreans and Singaporeans, whose countries are tied in 2nd place on the index, enjoy a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 192. 

Germany and Spain are joint 3rd, with visa-free access to 190 destinations worldwide. The UK and the US remain in 6th and 7th places, with scores of 187 and 186, respectively, and it appears increasingly unlikely that either country will ever regain the top spot on the index which they jointly held nearly a decade ago in 2014.

Afghanistan remains firmly at the bottom of the index, with a score of just 27 - 166 fewer visa-free destinations than Japan, which represents the widest global mobility gap in the index's 18-year history. 

As indicated by exclusive new research conducted by leading residence and citizenship advisory firm Henley and Partners into the link between passport strength and access to the global economy, citizens of the index's lowest-ranking countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq (visa-free score of 29), and Syria (visa-free score of 30) are effectively shut out of a shockingly wide breadth of opportunities for economic mobility and growth.

The bottom five ranking passports are Afghanistan at 109th position, Iraq at 108th, Syria at 107th, Pakistan at 106th and Yemen at 105th.

With historical data spanning 18 years, the Henley Passport Index is the only one of its kind based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). 

The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. Updated quarterly, the Henley Passport Index is considered the standard reference tool for global citizens and sovereign states when assessing where a passport ranks on the global mobility spectrum.