Morocco has the highest-rated passport in the Maghreb and the fifth strongest in Africa, but its citizens remain subject to visa restrictions across much of the world despite the country’s regional influence and institutional stability, a new global index found.
The 2026 Global Passport Index gave Morocco a composite score of 47.8 out of 100, placing it ahead of its North African neighbours. The result, however, does not measure visa-free travel alone.
Global Citizen Solutions, an investment-migration consultancy that produces the ranking, assesses 197 countries and territories through 14 indicators covering three areas: international mobility, investment conditions and quality of life. Morocco’s position therefore reflects the broader economic and living environment attached to its citizenship as well as the destinations its passport holders can enter without obtaining a visa in advance.
That distinction matters because Morocco’s relatively strong African ranking can obscure the continuing limits faced by its travellers.
The report identifies Africa as the region most disadvantaged by the global visa system. It said African countries are considerably more open to European travellers than Europe is to African passport holders, with a nine-fold difference between the two flows.
Morocco and South Africa illustrate the contradiction: both have functioning institutions, sizeable economies and regional diplomatic influence, yet their citizens still require visas for most wealthy destinations.
Morocco could expand mobility through reciprocal visa arrangements and more targeted diplomacy, particularly with countries where commercial, tourism and political links are already growing, the report said.
Sweden retained first place globally with 96.05 points, followed by Switzerland, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. Afghanistan remained last with 23.1 points. Nine of the top 10 passports were European, demonstrating how membership of regional free-movement systems and decades of bilateral agreements continue to concentrate mobility advantages in the Global North.
The distance between the highest- and lowest-rated passports reached almost 73 points and has widened in every edition since 2021, according to the report.
It also found that 61.5% of the bilateral travel relationships examined were unequal, meaning one country granted easier entry than it received in return. The most privileged passports were concentrated among wealthy economies, while lower-income states were more likely to offer access without receiving equivalent treatment.
Morocco’s ranking therefore signals relative strength within Africa rather than unrestricted global mobility. Its passport performs better than those of its neighbours, but the larger structure of visa policy continues to give Moroccan travellers far fewer options than citizens of Europe’s leading states.
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