By Yunus S Saliu
The Gambia is now ranking 76 in the latest passport global ranking and is visa-free to 69 destinations in the world.
In this year’s Henley Passport Index infographic global ranking released on Tuesday, 10th January 2023 the Gambia passport moved from its previous 2022 rank of 81st position to 77 and visa-free to 69 destinations the same as last year’s visa-free score.
According to Henley Passport Index Q1 2023 global ranking, “the list of visa-free countries is calculated to reflect the number of countries Gambia passport holders can enter without a visa, through a visa on arrival, and the eTA.
In the release, you can find all of the information about Gambia Passport Visa-Free Travel 2023, including the Gambia visa-free countries accessible with a Gambia passport. In addition to the visa-free countries list for Gambia passport holders, you can also view the various countries accessible through a visa-on-arrival or via an eTA, as well as the countries from which you will need to obtain an online visa, or a physical visa-visa from an embassy/consulate – to enter.
Meanwhile, “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. 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/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,” this was stated in the release.
With global travel now at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels, those with the opportunity to do so appear to be embracing what has been termed ‘revenge travel’. But a deeper analysis of the index reveals the darker side to this optimistic picture. 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.
