Number of asylum seeking Nigerians soars

The number of Nigerians who applied for asylum soared under former president Muhammadu Buhari government.

Between 2016 and 2023, a report by Statisense says more than 600,000 Nigerians filed for asylum in other countries across the world. .

Statisense is a data collecting organisation.

The asylum applications fell under the period that Muhammadu Buhari held sway as the leader of the most populous black nation.

Nigeria’s economic woes worsened under the former military head of state’s rule as civilian president. His economic policies saw prices of goods and services skyrocketting and standard of living dropping drastically.

The ugly development has taken the turn for the worse under the present administration of Bola Tinubu that Buhari handed over to. More Nigerians may seek asylum if the situation fails to improve.

According to the report by statisense released on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, of a total of 664,384 in eight years, 355,792 persons sought asylum between 2016 and 2019 while 308,592 sought asylum between 2020 and 2023.

On a year-by-year basis, 66,862 sought asylum in 2016, 91,924 in 2017, 84,624 (2018), 112,382 (2019), 73,233 (2020), 83,105 (2021), 83,402 (2022), and 68,852 in 2023.

The figures indicate a surge from the past years, as Statisense noted that within 12 years – 2004 to 2015 – only 204,791 Nigerians filed for asylum in other countries.

In total, 869,175 Nigerians filed for asylum in the last 20 years, notably from 2004 to 2023.

The report was posted on the organisation’s X.com handle @StatiSense, citing the United Nations Refugee Agency.

In another report shared by the organisation on Wednesday, it was stated that the Republic of Niger topped countries with the most Nigerian refugees in 2023 with about 200,497 Nigerians and a total of 1,268,464 Nigerian refugees between 2015 and 2023.

Niger, a border country, shares proximity with Nigeria’s north, where residents battle a spate of insecurity in the region ranging from banditry, terrorism and herdsmen-farmers crisis.

Another report also revealed that Nigerians topped the list of African countries who sought asylum in Canada in 2023 with about 10,111 asylum seekers followed by Kenya with 1,345. It stated that 1,345 Nigerians however sought asylum in the United Kingdom and 5,136 in the United States of America.