Canada has recently deported 366 Nigerians in 2025, with an additional 974 individuals of Nigerian nationality currently facing removal proceedings. This significant number places Nigeria among the top nationalities affected by Canada’s intensified immigration enforcement. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) removals program data reveals that Nigeria ranked ninth among the top 10 nationalities deported and fifth in the category of persons awaiting removal, highlighting a critical immigration issue.
The trend in deportations involving Nigerians has shown fluctuations over the years. While numbers decreased from 339 in 2019 to 199 in 2022, there has been a notable spike in 2025. This surge coincides with an aggressive immigration crackdown by Canadian authorities, reaching the highest rate of removals in over a decade. In the 2024–2025 fiscal year alone, Canada deported 18,048 individuals, with removal operations costing approximately $78 million.
Featured snippet paragraph: The primary reasons for deportation from Canada include security concerns, human rights violations, criminality, organized crime, health issues, financial problems, misrepresentation, and non-compliance with immigration rules as outlined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the CBSA is legally obligated to remove any foreign national with an enforceable removal order. These grounds for inadmissibility are diverse and cover a range of violations.
Approximately 83 percent of those removed are failed refugee claimants whose asylum applications were denied. This indicates a substantial portion of deportations are related to the refugee determination process.
Criminality accounts for roughly four percent of deportations, a smaller but still significant factor in the removal statistics.
Canadian law categorizes removal orders into three types: Departure orders, which require individuals to leave within 30 days; Exclusion orders, which prevent re-entry for one to five years; and Deportation orders, which permanently prohibit return unless special authorization is granted.
The Canadian government asserts that these intensified deportations are aimed at tightening immigration targets and addressing pressing concerns such as housing shortages, labor market pressures, and border security.
To bolster these efforts, the government allocated an additional $30.5 million over three years to strengthen removal operations and committed $1.3 billion to border security enhancements.
President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, Aisling Bondy, has cautioned that deportations could escalate further if Bill C-12, commonly known as the border bill, is passed into law.
Bondy specifically noted that a clause within that bill could lead to many individuals being permanently banned from filing a refugee claim in Canada, impacting future asylum seekers.
An analysis of the CBSA data reveals that Nigeria is the sole African country among the top 10 nationalities deported from Canada in 2025. Other African nations are grouped under “remaining nationals.”
In the removal-in-progress category, Nigeria is also the only African country listed among the top 10, with 974 cases awaiting resolution, underscoring the scale of the issue for Nigerian nationals in Canada.
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