Canada has deported 366 Nigerians between January and October 2025 as part of an intensified immigration enforcement initiative.
Official data from the Canada Border Services Agency’s removals programme indicates that 974 Nigerians are currently in the “removal in progress” queue, awaiting deportation from the country.
As of 25 November 2025, Nigeria ranked ninth among the top ten nationalities deported. The statistics reveal fluctuations in Nigerian deportations over the years.
In the fiscal year 2024-2025, Canada removed a total of 18,048 individuals, incurring approximately £60 million in the process.
In 2019, Canada deported 339 Nigerians; this number fell to 302 in 2020, then to 242 in 2021, and to 199 in 2022. Although Nigeria did not feature in the top ten in 2023 and 2024, it returned to the list in 2025 with 366 removals in just ten months, marking an eight per cent increase compared to the 2019 figures.
The majority of those being deported—around 83 per cent—are failed refugee claimants whose asylum applications were denied, while criminality accounts for approximately four per cent of removals.
Additionally, the government has allocated an extra £24 million over three years to strengthen removal efforts, alongside committing £800 million to enhance border security.
The Canadian government states that it is ramping up deportations to meet immigration targets and address concerns regarding housing shortages, labour market pressures, and border security.
Aisling Bondy, President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, expressed concern that deportations may increase further if Bill C-12, known as the ‘border bill,’ is passed. “One of the clauses in that bill would permanently ban many individuals from filing a refugee claim in Canada,” Bondy noted.
An analysis of the CBSA data revealed that Nigeria is the only African nation in the top ten for deportations in 2025. Other African countries are categorised under “remaining nationals,” which accounted for 6,233 removals that year.
The top ten countries for removals in 2025 are: Mexico (3,972), India (2,831), Haiti (2,012), Colombia (737), Romania (672), the United States (656), Venezuela (562), China (385), Nigeria (366), and Pakistan (359).
In the removal-in-progress records, Nigeria (974) is likewise the only African country in the top ten, which is led by India (6,515), followed by Mexico (4,650), the United States (1,704), China (1,430), Nigeria (974), Colombia (895), Pakistan (863), Haiti (741), Brazil (650), and Chile (621).
