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    Tuesday, January 18, 2022

    Tanzania Passport Most Powerful in EAC, says Report

    By From Edwadr Qorro in Arusha

    Tanzania's passport has climbed six places to claim the 71st position among the most powerful travel documents in the world.

    The official travel document also ranks eighth in Africa, matching Kenya's passport which also scored the same rank in the Henley Passport Index Report released last week.

    According to the findings, the number of countries that Tanzanians can visit without a visa, or obtain it on arrival still stands at 72, just like in the previous index released in January 2021.

    Both, Tanzania and Kenya's passports emerged stronger than the travel documents in the remaining four EAC Partner States.

    Uganda emerged in position 76 with Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan coming in at number 82, 92 and 99 respectively, according to the report.

    The report further notes that the appearance late last year of the Omicron variant shone a light on a growing divide in international mobility between wealthier countries and poor ones.

    "Covid-19 and its interplay with instability and inequality has highlighted and exacerbated the shocking disparity in international mobility between wealthy developed nations and their poorer counterparts," said the report.

    According to the report, Japan's and Singapore's passport are the best official travel documents to hold this year, with each having access to 192 destinations around the world, while the Afghan passport is the worst to carry around with, having only 26 destinations under its name.

    Christian Kaelin, who is also the chair of Henley & Partners and creator of the passport index concept, suggests in the report that opening up migration channels could be crucial for post-pandemic recovery.

    "Passports and visas are among the most important instruments impacting on social inequality worldwide as they determine opportunities for global mobility," he said. Added Mr Kaelin: The borders within which we happen to be born, and the documents we are entitled to hold, are no less arbitrary than our skin color. Wealthier states need to encourage positive inward migration in an effort to help redistribute and rebalance human and material resources worldwide.

    The Henley Passport Index is the original and most authoritative passport index, with historical data spanning 17 years. The index and its contents are based on data provided by the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and supplemented, enhanced, and updated using extensive in-house research and open-source online data.

    The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.

    It ranks 199 passports ac- cording to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

    Updated quarterly, the Henley Passport Index is the most robust and reliable index of its kind.

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