KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s passport has climbed to the 12th position globally in the 2025 Henley Passport Index, sharing the spot with the United States.
Its citizens can now travel visa-free or with visa-on-arrival to 180 destinations, marking Malaysia’s strongest ranking to date and highlighting its widening diplomatic reach.
Singapore retained the top spot globally, with its citizens enjoying visa-free access to 193 destinations, the most in the world.
South Korea comes at 2nd and Japan at 3rd, each granting access to 190 and 189 destinations respectively, consolidating Northeast Asia’s dominance in the global mobility hierarchy.
New Zealand followed closely at 6th, with 186 destinations, while Australia ranked 7th, offering access to around 185 destinations.
Together, these countries underscore how Asia-Pacific nations — especially high-income economies — are shaping global patterns of mobility privilege.
Rising inequality in regional movement
Meanwhile, several Asian countries continue to face heavy travel restrictions.
Indonesia ranked 70th, with visa-free access to 73 destinations, while the Philippines followed at 79th, with access to 64 destinations.
India stood at 85th, with 57 destinations, and Bangladesh ranked 100th, allowing access to 38 destinations.
Nepal, at 101st, had visa-free access to just 36 destinations.
The difference between Singapore’s 193 destinations and Nepal’s 36 captures one of the starkest divides in the region, between citizens with global access and those whose mobility remains tightly limited.
Further down the index, Afghanistan remains the lowest-ranked country in Asia-Pacific, with its citizens able to enter only 24 destinations visa-free, highlighting extreme movement restrictions linked to political instability and global isolation.
Such contrasts reveal how freedom of movement in Asia is closely tied to national wealth, diplomatic leverage, and migration politics.
Passport power and migration dependency
The Henley Passport Index, based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), measures how many destinations a passport holder can enter without a prior visa.
But for migration and human mobility analysts, the ranking reflects more than just ease of travel, it mirrors structural inequalities in who gets to move freely and who does not.
High-ranking passports belong largely to migrant-receiving economies like Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, which depend heavily on foreign labour.
Meanwhile, countries with weaker passports such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Nepal are major migrant-sending states that provide the workers powering those economies.
This paradox illustrates how mobility is both a marker of privilege and a mechanism of dependence.
Citizens of wealthy nations enjoy unprecedented travel freedom, while the migrant workers sustaining their industries often move under strict controls.
Malaysia’s dual role in the mobility divide
Malaysia sits squarely in the middle of this spectrum, both a migrant-sending and a migrant-receiving nation.
Its citizens now enjoy one of the region’s strongest passports, but the same cannot be said for the millions of foreign workers within its borders.
Most low-wage migrants in Malaysia, particularly from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nepal, remain subject to restrictive entry and employment systems.
Under the country’s work permit regime, foreign labourers are tied to specific employers and face barriers in changing jobs or leaving the country freely.
Even within ASEAN, regional frameworks like the Mutual Recognition Arrangements benefit mainly skilled professionals, not low-wage migrants.
That means that while some ASEAN citizens can work across borders more easily, the majority of the region’s migrant workers, often in construction, manufacturing, and domestic work still move under highly constrained conditions.
Mobility privilege and the politics of movement
Across Asia-Pacific, passport power reveals how citizenship defines access to global mobility.
For workers from South and Southeast Asia, the passport they hold determines not only where they can travel but also the terms under which they migrate.
Visa restrictions for citizens of labour-sending countries often reflect broader economic and political hierarchies.
While states like Singapore and Japan negotiate travel liberalisation and mobility corridors, lower-income countries focus on bilateral labour agreements that govern recruitment and return rather than travel equality.
This imbalance means that freedom of movement is not universal but conditional, shaped by income, skill, and status.
For many migrants, the ability to move remains tied to employer sponsorship or government quotas rather than personal agency.
Two realities of Asian mobility
The 2025 Henley Passport Index encapsulates two parallel realities within Asia’s mobility landscape.
On one side are citizens of high-ranking countries whose passports open the world to them, and on the other are the migrant workers who build and serve those same nations but remain bound by borders and bureaucracy.
Malaysia’s climb in the index reflects real diplomatic progress, yet it also highlights an enduring paradox, a country gaining global access while regulating the mobility of others within its own territory.
As Asia-Pacific countries expand their passport power, the challenge remains ensuring that freedom of movement extends beyond privilege and reaches those whose lives are most defined by migration itself.
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