The Government of India deported at least 2,356 Nigerians between 2019 and 2024, with removals rising sharply in recent years, according to data from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
In the 2023–2024 fiscal year (April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024), 1,470 Nigerians were deported nearly four times the 339 recorded in 2021. Nigerians accounted for about 63 per cent of the 2,331 foreign nationals removed during the period, making them the most deported nationality.
Deportations were carried out through Foreigners Regional Registration Offices in major cities including Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Amritsar, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Bangladesh ranked second with 411 deportations, followed by Uganda with 78.
Historical data shows the trend has worsened. In 2019, 547 Nigerians were deported, representing 44 per cent of all removals that year. Although deportations dropped in 2020 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, numbers surged again as international travel resumed.
Nigeria’s share of total deportations rose from 44 per cent in 2019 to 63 per cent in 2023–2024.
The figures come despite strengthening diplomatic relations between Nigeria and India. In September 2023, Bola Ahmed Tinubu visited India for the G20 Summit, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss cooperation in trade, defence and agriculture.
In November 2024, Modi visited Nigeria, the first such trip by an Indian prime minister since 2007 and was conferred with the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger. Both countries also reaffirmed their Strategic Partnership established in 2007.
Recent estimates place over 60,000 Nigerians living and working in India, forming the largest West African community in the country.
