Islamabad: Pakistan’s passport has suffered another humiliating setback, slipping to 101st place in the latest Henley Passport Index and leaving it ranked as the fourth-weakest passport in the world. The latest decline further underlines the shrinking international mobility available to Pakistani citizens.
The passport’s strength has deteriorated sharply, with Pakistani travellers now able to enter only 29 destinations without securing a visa in advance, down from 30 in May. The loss of just one destination has pushed Pakistan down from 100th to 101st place, leaving only Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria ranked below it.
The latest figures paint a bleak picture of Pakistan’s global travel access. Yemen, despite its own severe challenges, has moved ahead of Pakistan, offering access to 30 destinations through visa-free or visa-on-arrival arrangements.
The Henley Passport Index ranks 199 passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without obtaining a visa before travelling. Pakistan’s continued presence near the bottom of the global table reflects the increasingly restricted travel options facing its citizens.
Pakistani passport holders currently have visa-free access to Barbados, the Cook Islands, Dominica, Haiti, Micronesia, Montserrat, Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, The Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.
Visa-on-arrival access is available in Burundi, Cambodia, Comoros, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mozambique, Nepal, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu. Electronic travel authorisation is also available for Kenya, Seychelles and Sri Lanka.
The deterioration has come amid the withdrawal of visa-free or visa-on-arrival arrangements for Pakistani travellers by Cabo Verde, Mozambique and Qatar earlier this year, further narrowing Pakistan’s already limited travel footprint.
The downward slide has been rapid. In February, Pakistan ranked 97th, with access to 32 destinations, after The Gambia restored visa-free entry for Pakistani citizens. By March, access had fallen to 31 destinations and Pakistan had dropped to 98th. In May, the country slipped to 100th, and the latest ranking has pushed it further down to 101st.
Although Pakistan’s passport has improved from its 2021 low of 113th place, its latest performance remains a stark reminder of its weak position on the global mobility map. It ranked 107th in 2021, 109th in 2022 and 100th in both 2023 and 2024.
With fewer destinations opening their doors without prior visas, Pakistan’s latest passport ranking represents another sharp blow to its international mobility — placing its passport among the weakest in the world.
