Canada granted refugee protection to 7,643 Nigerians between January 2024 and June 2026, making Nigeria the largest African source of successful asylum claims during the 30-month period, according to newly published figures from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

The data, obtained and analyzed by Saturday PUNCH from the Refugee Protection Division of the federal tribunal, show that 2,230 Nigerian claims were accepted in 2024 before the number climbed sharply to 3,463 in 2025. During the first six months of 2026 alone, another 1,950 claims involving Nigeria were approved, bringing the cumulative total to 7,643.

The figures underline the scale of Nigerian migration into Canada’s refugee-protection system at a time when Ottawa is managing a large backlog of asylum cases and tightening several parts of its broader immigration framework. They also show that successful Nigerian claims increased substantially in 2025 before remaining at a high level during the first half of this year.

Not every claim succeeded. Canadian authorities rejected 3,080 Nigerian applications during the same period, while another 1,530 cases were abandoned or withdrawn. Altogether, 12,253 Nigerian cases were finalized between January 2024 and June 2026.

When only grants and refusals are considered, roughly 71% of the Nigerian cases decided during the period resulted in refugee protection, while about 29% were rejected. The calculation excludes applications that were abandoned or withdrawn because those cases did not produce a substantive decision granting or denying protection.

The annual figures show a marked increase between 2024 and 2025. Canada finalized 3,249 Nigerian refugee cases in 2024, approving 2,230 and rejecting 811. The remaining cases were abandoned or withdrawn.

By the end of that year, however, the Immigration and Refugee Board still had 19,889 Nigerian cases awaiting decisions, indicating that the number of pending claims substantially exceeded the volume the tribunal had been able to complete during the year.

The number of Nigerian cases finalized rose to 5,039 in 2025. Of those, 3,463 were accepted and 1,377 were rejected, producing a grant rate of approximately 68.7% when measured against all finalized cases for the year.

Nigeria’s successful claims represented a significant share of Canada’s overall refugee decisions. Canada accepted 50,067 refugee claims from all nationalities in 2025, meaning the 3,463 grants involving Nigeria accounted for approximately 6.9% of the worldwide total.

The first half of 2026 continued the pattern. The Immigration and Refugee Board finalized 3,965 Nigerian cases between January and June, granting protection in 1,950 cases and refusing 892. More than 1,000 additional cases were classified as withdrawn or abandoned.

Across all nationalities, Canada finalized 49,960 refugee claims during the first six months of 2026 and granted protection in 22,109 cases. Nigerian approvals accounted for approximately 8.8% of those successful claims.

Across the full 30-month period covered by the latest figures, Canadian authorities finalized 202,878 claims from people alleging persecution in countries around the world. Of those, 118,656 resulted in refugee protection and 34,546 were refused.

Nigeria’s 7,643 successful claims represented approximately 6.4% of all refugee protection granted by Canada during that period.

The Nigerian total was also substantially higher than those recorded for other African countries. Uganda ranked second among the countries identified by PUNCH, with 3,943 successful claims between January 2024 and June 2026, while Kenya recorded 3,888.

Ethiopia followed with 2,982 successful claims, while Ghana recorded 2,000. The Democratic Republic of Congo had 1,867 successful claims, Rwanda 1,699 and Cameroon 1,643.

The African comparison demonstrates that the use of Canada’s asylum system is not confined to Nigerians. Claimants from several countries across East, West and Central Africa have received refugee protection in significant numbers during the period, although Nigeria’s total was nearly twice that of Uganda, the next country on the list.

The 2025 figures alone show the same pattern. Nigeria recorded 3,463 grants that year, followed by Uganda with 2,089, Kenya with 1,532 and Ethiopia with 1,522. Ghana recorded 1,084 successful claims during 2025.

During the first half of 2026, Nigeria again led the group with 1,950 accepted cases. Kenya recorded 703, Ghana 603, Uganda 521, the Democratic Republic of Congo 412, Rwanda 389, Ethiopia 378 and Cameroon 300.

The rejection figures also vary substantially between countries. Nigeria recorded 3,080 refused claims during the 30-month period, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo with 1,230. Ghana had 885 refusals, Kenya 639, Senegal 595, Angola 442 and Chad and Cameroon 343 each.

These numbers should not be interpreted as evidence that every unsuccessful claimant made a false or fraudulent application. Refugee decisions are individualized legal determinations based on whether applicants meet the requirements for protection under Canadian law and international refugee conventions.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board is an independent federal administrative tribunal responsible for deciding refugee and immigration matters. Refugee claims are handled principally by its Refugee Protection Division, which considers whether an applicant qualifies as a Convention refugee or as a person in need of protection.

Under Canadian law, a Convention refugee generally must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution based on grounds including race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

A person may also qualify for protection if returning to their country would expose them personally to dangers such as torture, a threat to life or cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, subject to the requirements and exclusions set out in Canadian legislation.

The legal threshold means nationality alone cannot determine whether a person receives asylum. Two applicants from the same country can receive different decisions depending on their individual circumstances, available evidence, credibility findings and whether Canadian adjudicators believe adequate state protection or safe alternatives are available.

Claims can be initiated after a person arrives at a Canadian port of entry or from inside Canada. An immigration or border officer first determines whether the claim is legally eligible to be referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Once referred, the Refugee Protection Division examines evidence provided by the claimant, country-condition material and other relevant information before reaching a decision.

A rejected applicant may, depending on the circumstances of the case, be able to appeal to the Refugee Appeal Division. Some applicants can also seek judicial review in the Federal Court of Canada, while other legal mechanisms may be available before removal.

The growing volume of applications has placed considerable pressure on Canada’s refugee determination system. At the end of 2025, the Immigration and Refugee Board had roughly 300,000 refugee claims in its inventory, creating substantial waiting periods for people seeking decisions.

Nigeria was one of the largest national groups in that backlog. At the end of 2025, approximately 21,600 claims involving Nigeria remained pending, accounting for around 7% of the entire Refugee Protection Division inventory.

Ghana was also among the major countries represented in the pending caseload, with approximately 9,800 claims, or about 3% of the inventory.

The board told Canada’s parliamentary immigration committee earlier this year that the average waiting time for a Refugee Protection Division decision had reached approximately 24 months from referral by the end of December 2025. When measured from the point at which a case was fully ready for adjudication, the average wait was approximately 17 months.

Part of the backlog reflects cases that cannot immediately proceed to hearings because security screening or other administrative requirements remain outstanding. According to the board, about 39% of its pending claims at the end of 2025 were not yet ready to be scheduled.

Canada has nevertheless accelerated the processing of refugee claims during 2026. Monthly finalizations increased significantly during the first half of the year, reaching more than 13,000 in June, while the total number of pending claims began to decline from the record levels recorded at the end of 2025.

The board’s figures show that the pending inventory stood at approximately 276,390 by June 2026 and continued falling in subsequent months as the number of completed cases exceeded new referrals.

The Nigerian numbers emerge against the backdrop of a much wider migration relationship between Nigeria and Canada. Over the past decade, Canada has become one of the most popular destinations for Nigerians seeking education, skilled employment, permanent residence and family reunification.

Those legal immigration streams are separate from the refugee system. A person granted a study permit, work permit or economic permanent residence is not automatically a refugee, while seeking refugee protection involves a distinct legal claim that returning to a country would expose the applicant to qualifying persecution or other serious harm.

That distinction is important because discussions around Nigerian migration to Canada frequently combine different categories of migrants despite their separate legal status.

Economic migrants generally apply because they want employment, education or permanent settlement opportunities. Refugee claimants, by contrast, must demonstrate a legally recognized need for protection.

The latest figures therefore do not mean that 7,643 Nigerians simply migrated to Canada through the ordinary immigration system. They represent cases in which Canada’s refugee tribunal accepted claims for protection after assessing them under refugee law.

The statistics also do not reveal the full personal circumstances behind every successful Nigerian application. The Immigration and Refugee Board publishes aggregate decisions by country of alleged persecution but generally does not provide publicly identifiable details about individual claimants.

Historically, Nigerian asylum cases in Canada have involved a range of alleged risks, including political persecution, gender-based violence, sexual-orientation claims, family and community threats, religious or ethnic conflict and other forms of claimed persecution. Whether any particular case succeeds depends on the evidence presented and the tribunal’s assessment.

Canada has periodically adjusted how it handles Nigerian refugee claims. Nigerian applicants have previously ranked among major groups using the asylum system, including during periods when large numbers crossed from the United States into Quebec through irregular border routes.

The migration environment has changed substantially since those earlier movements. Canada and the United States have expanded application of the Safe Third Country Agreement, which generally requires asylum seekers to make claims in the first of the two countries they enter, subject to exceptions.

That has reduced some forms of irregular border crossing while shifting attention toward claims made at airports and from within Canada.

The latest statistics nevertheless show that Nigeria remains one of the most significant countries represented in Canada’s refugee system.

They also show significant year-to-year fluctuations. Nigerian grants rose by more than 55% from 2,230 in 2024 to 3,463 in 2025. If the pace recorded during the first six months of 2026 were simply doubled, annual approvals would exceed the 2025 figure, although the final total cannot be reliably projected because case processing varies throughout the year.

The data should therefore be treated as a record of decisions already made rather than a forecast of how many Nigerians will ultimately receive refugee protection in 2026.

The same caution applies to the large number of pending cases. A pending claim does not indicate that protection will eventually be granted or refused. It means only that the case has not yet reached a final determination.

The African totals provide another important perspective. PUNCH estimated that African countries collectively accounted for roughly 35,000 of Canada’s 118,656 successful refugee claims during the 30-month period, equivalent to just under 30% of the worldwide total.

Nigeria alone contributed about one-fifth of the successful African claims identified in that estimate.

The scale of those numbers is likely to sustain discussion in both Canada and African countries about the forces driving migration and the capacity of Canada’s asylum system to process claims efficiently.

For Canada, policymakers face the challenge of maintaining access to refugee protection for people who meet legal requirements while reducing waiting times and preventing the asylum process from becoming overwhelmed.

For Nigeria and other African states, the figures raise broader questions about why thousands of citizens are able to persuade foreign tribunals that they face serious risks if returned home.

The data themselves do not provide a single explanation. Refugee cases are highly individual, and successful claims can arise from very different personal circumstances even among applicants from the same country.

The numbers do, however, establish the scale of the trend. Between January 2024 and June 2026, Canadian adjudicators granted refugee protection in 7,643 cases involving Nigeria and rejected 3,080.

Another 1,530 Nigerian cases ended through withdrawal or abandonment, while thousands more remained unresolved in the tribunal’s inventory.

Nigeria therefore stands out not only among African countries but also as one of the major countries represented in Canada’s overall refugee system. Whether that position changes will depend on the volume of future claims, the pace at which the Immigration and Refugee Board clears its backlog and the outcomes of the thousands of Nigerian cases that remain pending.