By Our Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan passport has fallen to 101st place in the latest Henley Passport Index 2026, reflecting a further decline in global travel mobility after the number of destinations accessible without a prior visa dropped to 29.
The latest edition of the Henley Passport Index places Pakistan 101st among 199 passports, marking another setback for the country’s global travel freedom.
The ranking fell after Pakistan lost visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to one destination since the previous index, reducing the total number of accessible destinations from 30 in May to 29 in July.
The report shows that Pakistani citizens can enter only 29 destinations without obtaining a visa in advance, either through visa-free entry, visa-on-arrival facilities or electronic travel authorisations.
Among the countries offering visa-free access are Barbados, Dominica, Haiti, Rwanda, The Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Montserrat, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Cook Islands.
Visa-on-arrival facilities remain available in countries including Cambodia, Maldives, Nepal, Madagascar, Palau, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste, while Kenya, Seychelles and Sri Lanka continue to offer electronic travel authorisations.
The latest index also shows that Cape Verde, Mozambique and Qatar no longer provide visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to Pakistani passport holders, contributing to the decline in the country’s overall ranking.
Pakistan’s passport has experienced fluctuating rankings this year. It stood at 97th in February, improved travel access briefly in March, but has since recorded consecutive declines in the latest editions of the index.
Despite remaining among the world’s lowest-ranked passports, Pakistan has improved compared with 2021, when it was ranked 113th globally. The passport was ranked 109th in 2022 and 100th in both 2023 and 2024.
Only Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria rank below Pakistan in the latest global passport standings, while Yemen has moved one position ahead with access to 30 destinations.
Singapore retained its position as the world’s strongest passport, allowing visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 192 destinations. Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates jointly occupied second place with access to 188 destinations, followed by Sweden in third.
The Henley Passport Index evaluates passport strength based on the number of countries and territories that citizens can enter without securing a visa before departure, using data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
