Countries with the Worst Passports

Even where you usually stay in transit area, the country may demand transit visa for certain passports (such as those on top of this quiz), which means the airline wouldn't allow you on the flight for starters.

I've only ever had to go through customs and therefore use my passport in transit when I was changing airports or I had an overnight layover somewhere.

So how exactly is the “Power” of a passport determined?

Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Iran, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Macao, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Micronesia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Palau, Palestine, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, St. Vincent, Suriname, Tanzania, East Timor, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda according to the source, but I know a lot of people will go to China visa free and South Korea of course does not require a visa.

Why the sad face?

It is a happy face, he just has eyes on his chin

So many to choose from.

Would have expected Central African Republic.

Just barely misses the list at 57.

Could have sworn I typed "Congo"... only 2 I missed.

I imagine this matches more or less perfectly to "largest sources of refugees"?

True. However, covid has halted things and the EU has already been putting the brakes on migration both at home and abroad. Italy has been using their navy to prevent Africans from reaching the mainland and Greece has been stopping Syrians from crossing in through Turkey. Meanwhile Germany has even sent their military into Sub Saharan Africa to work with various leaders including some dictators who are known human rights violators by paying them and giving them newer technology to keep migrants out of Europe. Money talks.

Weird how Central African Republic isn't on this list.

Didn't think of Kosovo; the question of their passports is an interesting one. They're not a fully independent country in my mind; it must create a bit of a mess with passports and other certificates if they move or work abroad, etc.

It's not the US empire it's the international system of countries that believe in cooperation, law, human rights, peaceful coexistence, and, often, democracy. If you want to be a belligerent rogue nation, so that the corrupt kleptocrats in power can better hold on to their power, almost always at the expense of their own people more than anyone else, you'll end up with a weaker passport. Though the "weakness" of passports has as much or more to do with economics than politics. But... having a poor economy is also often the result of a country being run by belligerent, corrupt kleptocracies. Trying to seal off your nation from dangerous ideas not controlled by the state is bad for the economy. And then when your people end up poor and destitute other countries start worrying about your citizens becoming economic migrants. I don't personally share those concerns, but, that's the reality of it.

Can't even be bothered to read this but I can guess it affirms what SaorAlba said

Shielding off your own mind from dangerous facts and information the same way North Korea shields its people from the same is really the only way you could come to conclusions other than what I stated above.

Not having a good passport doesn't really have anything to do with your human rights record. If it did, then the UAE wouldn't have one of the best passports in the world. It mostly has to do with having a strong economy, low levels of violence, and to a lesser extent having close allies.

I didn't use the term human rights, and certainly didn't imply that that was the one and only determining factor, but if you look at the countries on the above list there does appear to be a correlation. It has more to do with, like I said, countries being run by corrupt kleptocrats or rogue warlords who prioritize holding on to power more than cooperating with other nations. This *is* negatively correlated with many things, including the strength of a nation's economy, the strength of its democratic institutions, stability of government, *and* human rights... but none of those correlated things are themselves the whole ball of wax. *and*, it's possible to pick out nations, like the UAE, that are not democratic and that don't have the best human rights record, but at the same time *are* interested in international cooperation and maintaining positive diplomatic and trade relations with other countries. This shores up my point more than it detracts from it.

Bashar al-Assad: heroically dropping barrel bombs on political opponents, peaceful protestors, and/or innocent civilians (and mostly the latter) since '11... because that's how you really stick it to Uncle Sam! What an inspiration!

It's probably more (ie entirely) due to the statistical likelihood of overstaying a visa and thereby becoming an illegal immigrant.

Certainly not entirely, but, yes, it has more to do with this than "daring to stand up for yourself" - which is a nonsensical non-factor. The possibility that people from these countries overstay their visas while visiting other countries is also correlated strongly with what I said about nations being run by belligerent autocrats and kleptocrats, as those countries tend to have bad economies, prioritizing enriching their leaders over the common man, and little respect for the lives and rights of their citizens, prioritizing the ruling class holding on to power over democracy or freedom, leading to many people wanting to flee to other places.

Can anyone offer explanation for Sri Lanka? I guess there's been prolonged civil war; as recently as 2009(?). I also missed Nepal. I thought it was mainly neutral- I guess they had a civil war 1996-2006 as well.

Also surprised to not find CAR on the list. I guess radical Muslims haven't made it in high enough numbers there yet? Aso Mali/Mauritania.

I think that the South Asian countries that show up here, though they are not as poor and/or not as belligerent as many of the other countries that show up above, suffer by virtue of their geography. Other regions of the world have more economic and political cooperation between larger numbers of countries. South Asia has relatively fewer countries, is dominated mostly by India, and India doesn't get along particularly well with most of its neighbors, leaving them more isolated than many poorer and/or less stable countries in Africa, the Middle East, SE Asia or Latin America.

Also, I allude to this on the opposite quiz, but immigration. South Asians immigrants go everywhere, essentially to any country that's even slightly richer than them. This is not a concern for poorer and less populous countries like, say, Chad or Mali. A lot of richer countries probably the best way to limit illegal immigration from these countries is not allowing them in in the first place--hence, strict visa requirements. The only reason India is not on here I suspect is because it's a powerful enough country that it can negotiate for visa-free travel, something the other countries can't do.

Radical Christians are a much bigger threat in CAR than radical Muslims...

Hmmmmmm, I guess I agree with your point. Not so sure about the political correctness of the term 'radical Muslims' though...