The UAE has been ranked 65th globally in terms of the number of countries and territories which can be entered without a visa by a UAE citizen, according to Henley Visa Restrictions Index created by Henley & Partners, an international residence, citizenship and government advisory firm.

The UAE (with a score of 64) is ranked above countries like Thailand, India, Egypt, China, Pakistan, Iran and Lebanon.

The index is a global ranking of countries according to travel freedom their citizens have, or in other words, according to the visa-free access its citizens enjoy to other countries.

This is the first time that a global ranking shows the international travel freedom of the citizens of the various countries as well as the international relations and status of individual countries relative to others, the firm has said.

The UK, Denmark and Sweden have been ranked as the top three countries respectively as per the index (with a score of 166, 164 and 163 respectively).

This is followed by Finland and Luxembourg ranked 4th jointly; France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands jointly ranked 5th; Belgium, Japan, and Spain ranked 6th; Ireland, Norway, and the US ranked 7th; Austria and Portugal ranked 8th; Australia, Canada and New Zealand 9th while Switzerland is tanked 10th. 

Other countries ranked above the UAE include Singapore, Greece, Iceland, South Korea, Malaysia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Hong Kong, Brazil, St. Kitts and Nevis, South Africa, Montenegro, Russian Federation, and Dominica.