Canada granted refugee protection to no fewer than 7,643 Nigerians over 30 months spanning January 2024 to June 2026, fresh data from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada showed.
The data, obtained by Saturday PUNCH from the IRB’s Refugee Protection Division, revealed that Nigeria was the single largest source of successful asylum seekers from Africa and ranked among the top claimant nationalities worldwide.
According to the figures, 2,230 Nigerian claims were granted in 2024. The figure surged by 55 per cent to 3,463 in 2025 before reaching 1,950 in the first six months of 2026 alone.
However, Canadian authorities rejected the asylum claims of 3,080 Nigerians during the same period, meaning nearly three in every 10 Nigerians whose cases were decided were denied asylum.
A further 1,530 Nigerian cases were either abandoned or withdrawn, bringing the total number of Nigerian cases finalised in Canada during the period to 12,253.
In 2025, 3,463 Nigerians were accepted; Uganda ranked second on the continent with 2,089 grants, followed by Kenya (1,532), Ethiopia (1,522) and Ghana (1,084). The Democratic Republic of Congo (732), Rwanda (710) and Cameroon (742) also ranked among the top eight.
For the first half of 2026, 1,950 Nigerians were granted asylum. The remaining leading countries included Kenya (703), Uganda (521), Ghana (603), Ethiopia (378), the DRC (412), Rwanda (389) and Cameroon (300).
Cumulatively across the 30 months covered by the data, 7,643 Nigerians received asylum grants, followed by Uganda (3,943), Kenya (3,888), Ethiopia (2,982), Ghana (2,000), the DRC (1,867), Rwanda (1,699) and Cameroon (1,643).
The data showed that authorities refused asylum to 3,080 Nigerians between January 2024 and June 2026. The DRC ranked second in rejections at 1,230, ahead of Ghana (885), Kenya (639), Senegal (595), Angola (442), Chad (343) and Cameroon (343).
In 2024, the IRB finalised 3,249 Nigerian cases, of which 2,230 were accepted and 811 rejected, with the remainder either abandoned or withdrawn.
As of December 31, 2024, the board recorded 19,889 Nigerian cases awaiting a decision—a backlog nearly six times the total cases finalised that year.
In 2025, the total number of Nigerian cases finalised rose to 5,039. Of these, 3,463 (68.7 per cent) resulted in grants, while 1,377 were rejected.
Globally, Canada finalised 79,462 refugee claims in 2025, accepting 50,067 and rejecting 14,619.
Nigeria’s 3,463 grants accounted for 6.9 per cent of all claims accepted worldwide that year.
In the first half of 2026, Nigerians recorded 1,950 grants and 892 rejections out of 3,965 total finalised cases.
In the same period, the IRB accepted 22,109 of 49,960 finalised claims globally, with the 1,950 successful grants to Nigerians representing 8.8 per cent of total refugee protection granted by Canada in those six months.
Across the 30-month window, Canada finalised 202,878 refugee claims from all nationalities, accepting 118,656 and rejecting 34,546.
Nigeria’s 7,643 grants represented 6.4 per cent of the global total.
African countries collectively accounted for an estimated 35,000 of those 118,656 grants, or roughly 29.5 per cent, with Nigeria contributing about one in every five African grants made in Canada during the period.
Canada’s refugee determination system is administered by the Immigration and Refugee Board, an independent federal administrative tribunal established under the country’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
The board’s Refugee Protection Division is the primary body that hears and decides all asylum claims made in Canada or at a port of entry.
The RPD assesses claims based on whether an applicant qualifies as a Convention refugee under the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, this criterion determines whether an individual faces persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.
Asylum cases are also assessed on whether the applicant qualifies as a “person in need of protection,” covering individuals at risk of torture, death, or cruel and unusual punishment if returned to their home country.
Claimants whose applications are refused by the RPD may appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division. Applicants who fail at that stage may seek judicial review before Canada’s Federal Court, and may file a pre-removal risk assessment as a last avenue before deportation.
Persons asking for protection in Canada must show evidence portending danger of torture, risk to life, or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment should they return to their country of nationality. Such protection claims are made when immigrants notify the Border Services Agency at any port of entry upon arriving in Canada or report to an immigration officer.
“If the claim is eligible, it is sent to the RPD to start the claim for refugee protection process,” an application guideline by the Refugee Board reads.
The IRB data showed that Canada received 107,802 new refugee referrals to the RPD in 2025 alone, with 299,614 claims pending as of December 31, 2025.
