CANADA has deported 366 Nigerian citizens between January and October 2025 as immigration authorities stepped up enforcement to levels not recorded in more than ten years.
Records from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) removals programme also indicate that 974 Nigerians are currently classified as “removal in progress,” meaning they are awaiting deportation.
The figures, last updated on November 25, 2025, ranked Nigeria ninth among the 10 countries with the highest number of deportees during the period. Nigeria also placed fifth among countries with the largest number of individuals pending removal.
A review of the CBSA data shows that Nigeria was the only African country to feature among the top 10 nationalities deported in 2025.
Other African countries were grouped under “remaining nationals,” a category that accounted for 6,233 removals in total during the year.
Mexico led the list of deportations with 3,972 cases, followed by India (2,831), Haiti (2,012), Colombia (737), Romania (672), the United States (656), Venezuela (562), China (385), Nigeria (366), and Pakistan (359).
A similar trend is reflected in the removal-in-progress data, where Nigeria again appeared as the only African country in the top 10, with 974 people awaiting deportation.
India topped the list with 6,515 cases, 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).
Despite the increase in deportations, Canada remains a key destination for Nigerians pursuing better economic and educational prospects.
Data from the 2021 Canadian census showed that over 40,000 Nigerians migrated to Canada between 2016 and 2021, making them the largest African migrant group and the fifth-largest source of recent immigrants overall.
Additional figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reveal that 6,600 Nigerians obtained permanent residency in the first four months of 2024, ranking fourth behind India, the Philippines, and China.
Between 2005 and 2024, a total of 71,459 Nigerians became Canadian citizens, placing Nigeria 10th among countries of origin for new citizens.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.