Travelling As A Refugee and Coming From A Third World Country

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When I was a child, I always wanted to travel and explore the world. Back then travelling was not that simple. You cannot just book a flight and go to places. Travelling was expensive like really expensive but things have changed now and everyone can easily travel around the world. The world has become smaller.

As I grew up, I started following travel bloggers, I started to read a lot of travel books that got me inspired, and then I met my British husband while travelling. He loves to travel so it was perfect. Until we got married and we visited many countries, which were easily accessible and affordable from our location. I started realising that travelling with me is actually difficult because I have to keep applying for visas. Therefore, it narrows down our travel list. I sometimes feel that we should not have gotten married, I feel like I am holding him back from his dream of travelling the world. Unlike me, I want to travel the world but I travel to countries that are easy to travel to, to avoid the hassle of applying for visas.

When I started this blog and followed many bloggers, I then realised that the majority of the travel bloggers I follow have passports that allows them to enter more than 130 countries visa free. Then I followed a Filipina travel blogger and she wrote a blog post about how it is possible to travel with a third world country passport. I then watched a video made by Americans about how sad it is that Filipinos can only travel to more or less 65 countries visa free and need to constantly apply for visas. There was one vlogger who had one of those “strong” passports, and complained about visa processing to enter to only one country and it really annoyed me because there are nationalities that have to always apply for visas. However, the vlogger did mention that the world should be visa free but come on, let us be realistic this might never happen. As a Filipina, I’m so proud to come from a third world country and the fact that I keep applying for visas makes me appreciate travel more than anyone who travels all the time.

Now, I will be talking on behalf of the Palestinian refugees who apply for visas to travel anywhere in the world. Refugees (literally have no country) are ranked in the top 3 worst passports in the world so trust me entering 65 countries visa free sounds amazing to refugees. Palestinian refugees are the ones who fled the war in 1948 and have no right to return to which is now the State of Israel.

So how can a refugee have a passport?

It is not a passport; it is called a travel document issued by countries who allow the stateless people to seek refuge. This allows refugees to be able to travel the world but it means applying for visas everywhere they go and there are countries that do not acknowledge them. Visa application requires bank statements, letters, passport pictures, passport copies, approvals from sponsors to travel, plane ticket, hotel bookings, etc and even if you submitted all those documents, you may not even get the visa and of course, it costs a lot.

I have been lucky and blessed to travel around the world with a third world country passport. It makes me appreciate the moment I get the visa, it makes me appreciate my trip and makes me realise that I am fortunate. I was rejected and I did get humiliated but I never gave up and reapplied 🙂

So please when you ask me to visit a country or plan a trip with me, consider the fact that I have to plan ahead, I have to apply for visas and I need to look at my budget. I ask you to be considerate, understand other peoples struggle when they travel. Just a final note, if someone complains about applying for a visa or how annoying it is and goes on and on and on and on and never stops complaining, I will just walk away from the conversation.

I ask you nicely, please appreciate what you have and please never complain. If you have one of those passports that allows you to enter more than 100 countries, take advantage of that and travel and explore the world 🙂

Happy Travels Everyone and all the best to the ones applying for visas. 🙂




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