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

This brings the total number of accepted asylum claims filed by Nigerians to 11,370 from 2012 to Q1 2024, as shown by data from the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

The Board grants refugee protection in Canada if the Division satisfactorily confirms that an applicant or claimant meets the United Nations definition of a Convention refugee, “which has been incorporated into Canadian law, or that the applicant is a person in need of protection.”

The 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees defines refugees as persons with a substantiated fear of persecution because of their race, nationality, religion, political ideology, or membership in a particular social group.

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

However, persons seeking protection in Canada must show evidence portending the danger of torture, a risk to their life or risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment should they return to their country of nationality.

Typically, these protection claims are made when immigrants notify the Border Services Agency at any port of entry upon arriving in Canada or report to an immigration officer.

“The officer decides whether the claim is eligible to be referred to the IRB. If the claim is eligible, it is sent (‘referred’) to the RPD to start the claim for refugee protection process,” an application guideline by the Refugee Board reads.

However, from January 2023 to March 2024, the IRB rejected 589 applications from persons with Nigerian passports, bringing the total number of rejections since January 2013 to over 12,600.

The breakdown showed that 20, 308, 394, and 389 Nigerians were granted asylum in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

389, 764, 755, and 1,733 Nigerians received the green light in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, 1,534, 2,302, and 1,315 persons were granted protection, respectively. 1086 and 381 Nigerians were accepted for protection in 2023 and Q1 of 2024.

In an interview with Saturday PUNCH, the Executive Director of the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation, Imaobong Ladipo-Sanusi, described the acceptance rate as fair, saying irregular migration was often the leading cause of rejection.