{"id":10370,"date":"2022-02-12T11:56:24","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T11:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19"},"modified":"2022-02-12T12:40:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T12:40:06","slug":"coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: African passports became more valuable during Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Over the past 18 months, African passports holders have been granted visa-free access to more countries than ever before, a trend which may be surprising, given the increased travel barriers to contain the deadly Covid-19 virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe global mobility gap is at its widest point ever and continues to expand due to proliferating barriers to entry erected since the outbreak of the pandemic,\u201d said Henley and Partners, in their 2021 Passport Index, released<\/p>\n

Holders of African passports can now travel to more than three-quarters of all countries of the world without the requirement of a visa. The island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius, alongside South Africa, rank among the top five countries with the most powerful passports in Africa respectively.<\/p>\n

According to the index, they led their peers in defying pandemic-induced travel restrictions. The Seychelles passport ranked 29th globally offers holders access to 153 countries, Mauritius ranked 33rd (148 destinations) while South African passport holders enjoy travel freedom in 103 countries across the globe.<\/p>\n

Compared to the Index\u2019s 2020 edition, the three countries have added two more countries each on their visa-free destinations. According to the Henley Passport index 2021, advanced economies like UK and US still have stricter restrictions to international movement including frequent changes on \u2018safe list\u2019 countries even as they contemplate a return to business as usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cOngoing requirements for expensive tests and quarantine periods are throwing significant obstacles in the way of international travellers,\u201d said Hannah White, Deputy Director of the UK\u2019s Institute for Government, in a comment published by the index.<\/p>\n

Botswana (77 destinations) and Namibia (76 destinations) ranked fourth and fifth to round out the top five most powerful African passports. They added a jurisdiction each over the last year, giving holders more freedom to travel the world.<\/p>\n

Even some of the lowest-ranked African countries with access to less than 50 countries (like Sudan, with 41) and Somalia (with 34) added countries (one each) to their lists of visa-free destinations, during the period. The index relies exclusively on data provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The index can be found here.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. Over the past 18 months, African passports holders have been granted visa-free access to more countries than ever before, a trend which may be surprising, given the increased travel barriers to contain the deadly Covid-19 virus. \u201cThe global mobility gap is at its widest point ever and continues to expand due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,245,241,586],"class_list":["post-10370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-mauritius","tag-seychelles"],"yoast_head":"\nCoronavirus: African passports became more valuable during Covid-19 - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over the past 18 months, African passports holders have been granted visa-free access to more countries than ever before ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coronavirus: African passports became more valuable during Covid-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the past 18 months, African passports holders have been granted visa-free access to more countries than ever before ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-12T11:56:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-12T12:40:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/02\/img-6207aa8d97ada.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"419\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Coronavirus: African passports became more valuable during Covid-19\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-12T11:56:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-12T12:40:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/02\/img-6207aa8d97ada.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Mauritius\",\"Seychelles\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/coronavirus-african-passports-became-more-valuable-during-covid-19\",\"name\":\"Coronavirus: African passports became more valuable during Covid-19 - 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