How Canada rejected over 12,600 Nigerian Asylum seekers since 2013

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board granted asylum to at least 1,467 Nigerians who applied for refugee protection between January 2023 and March 2024.

This raises the total number of successful asylum claims by Nigerians to 11,370 from 2012 to the first quarter of 2024, according to data from the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

Refugee protection in Canada is granted when the Board’s Division determines that an applicant meets the United Nations’ definition of a Convention refugee, which has been incorporated into Canadian law, or if the applicant is deemed a person in need of protection.

The 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as someone with a well-founded fear of persecution due to their race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.

These social groups can include sexual orientation, gender identity, being a woman, and individuals living with HIV/AIDS.

Applicants for protection in Canada must provide evidence of the danger of torture, risk to their life, or the likelihood of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment if they return to their home country.

Typically, protection claims are initiated when immigrants notify the Border Services Agency at a port of entry upon arrival in Canada or report to an immigration officer.

“The officer decides whether the claim is eligible to be referred to the IRB. If eligible, it is sent (‘referred’) to the RPD to start the refugee protection claim process,” according to a guideline from the Refugee Board.

Between January 2023 and March 2024, the IRB rejected 589 asylum applications from Nigerian nationals, bringing the total number of rejections since January 2013 to over 12,600.

A breakdown of the data shows that 20, 308, 394, and 389 Nigerians were granted asylum in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, respectively. In 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, 389, 764, 755, and 1,733 Nigerians were approved for asylum, respectively. The numbers for 2020, 2021, and 2022 were 1,534, 2,302, and 1,315, respectively, with 1,086 and 381 Nigerians accepted for protection in 2023 and Q1 of 2024.

In an interview with Saturday PUNCH, Imaobong Ladipo-Sanusi, the Executive Director of the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation, described the acceptance rate as fair, noting that irregular migration is often a primary reason for rejection.