Nigeria’s migrant community in India has come under intense scrutiny following official data showing that at least 2,356 Nigerians were deported from India between 2019 and 2024, with removals surging sharply in recent years and Nigerians emerging as the most deported foreign nationality in the country during the latest reporting period.
Data obtained by some journalists from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reveals that deportations of Nigerians quadrupled from 339 in 2021 to 1,470 in the 2023–2024 fiscal year, underscoring a steep rise in enforcement actions amid tightening immigration controls and heightened security concerns.
The figures were drawn from three separate MHA annual reports in which Nigeria-specific data was publicly available, providing a rare longitudinal insight into deportation trends affecting Nigerians in India.
According to the reports, the most recent review period spanning April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024 saw Nigerians account for 63 per cent of all foreign nationals deported from India, placing them far ahead of other nationalities and marking a significant escalation compared with previous years.
During the 2023–2024 fiscal year alone, Indian authorities deported over 2,331 foreign nationals, with Nigerians representing nearly two-thirds of the total.
The removals were carried out by the Foreigners Regional Registration Offices operating across seven major Indian cities: Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Amritsar, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
The concentration of deportations across these urban centres highlights the geographic spread of Nigerian migration and enforcement activity.
A breakdown of the annual figures shows that the trend has been building for years. In 2019, India deported 547 Nigerians out of a total of 1,233 foreign nationals, meaning Nigerians accounted for 44.3 per cent of all deportations that year.
Bangladesh ranked second with 230 deportations, while Afghanistan placed third with 94. These early figures already positioned Nigerians as the single largest deported group, a pattern that has since intensified.
In 2020, deportations dropped sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global travel restrictions. Between April and December of that year, only 258 foreigners were deported from India.
During this period, Nigerians did not feature among the top three deported nationalities, reflecting both reduced cross-border movement and limited enforcement activity during the height of the pandemic.
By 2021, however, deportations rebounded as international travel resumed. That year, 339 Nigerians were deported out of 821 total removals, representing 41.3 per cent of all deportations. Bangladesh again ranked second with 246 deportations, followed by Afghanistan with 105.
While the absolute numbers were lower than pre-pandemic levels, Nigerians continued to dominate India’s deportation statistics.
The most dramatic shift occurred in the 2023–2024 reporting period, when deportations of Nigerians jumped to 1,470, representing a 333 per cent increase from the 2021 figure.
On average, 122.5 Nigerians were deported each month, translating to roughly four deportations per day. Over the same period, Nigeria’s share of total deportations rose from 44 per cent in 2019 to 63 per cent, while Uganda emerged as the only other sub-Saharan African country among the top three deported nationalities.
These figures stand in contrast to the size of Nigeria’s diaspora in India. Recent estimates put the number of Nigerians living and working in India at over 60,000, making it the largest West African community in the country.
Many are students, traders, and professionals, but Indian authorities say a significant proportion of deportations stem from visa overstays and criminal investigations, particularly drug-related offences.
According to the MHA, deportation typically results from entering India without valid documentation or remaining after a visa has expired. The reports indicate that many Nigerian deportees originally entered India on student visas that later lapsed, leaving them without legal status.
Indian officials say enforcement has intensified in recent years as immigration databases and inter-agency coordination improved.
Drug trafficking has also featured prominently in official explanations for deportations. Data from India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) shows that Nigerians have been repeatedly implicated in narcotics investigations. In its 2024 annual report, unveiled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the second National Conference of Anti-Narcotics Task Force heads, the NCB disclosed that 106 Nigerians were arrested in 2024 for drug trafficking offences, making them the second-highest group of foreign nationals arrested after Nepalese citizens.
Several high-profile enforcement operations have resulted in deportations. In December 2025, Indian authorities deported 32 Nigerians following a multi-state narcotics raid in Delhi led by the EAGLE anti-narcotics unit.
The operation involved 124 EAGLE officers and 100 personnel from the Delhi Crime Branch, who raided locations across Delhi, Greater Noida, Gwalior, and Visakhapatnam on November 27, 2025, arresting 50 Nigerians allegedly linked to a transnational drug trafficking and money-laundering syndicate.
Of the 50 arrested during the EAGLE operation, 32 were deported within 10 days “on priority,” while seven remain in custody facing prosecution after drugs were recovered from them.
Indian authorities said the remaining suspects may also be deported pending documentation review, underscoring the speed with which deportation is used as an enforcement tool alongside criminal prosecution.
Individual cases have further illustrated the pattern. In November 2025, Hyderabad police deported Onyeukwu Victor, who had entered India on a student visa in 2021 but remained after it expired in 2024.
The Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing alleged that he coordinated drug supplies to customers in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, although no drugs were found on him at the time of arrest.
Another Nigerian, Victor Obasi, was deported from Hyderabad in January 2026 for illegal stay and alleged drug trafficking links. Indian authorities described his continued presence as “a potential threat to public safety and national security.”
Hyderabad’s specialised H-NEW narcotics unit later disclosed that it had deported 56 foreigners since 2022, including 35 Nigerians, with 20 deported for drug trafficking and 15 for overstaying without valid documents.
Beyond individual cities, the western coastal state of Goa reported in October 2022 that approximately 650 Nigerians had been deported from the state between 2019 and 2022. The disclosures added to growing public attention around Nigerian migration and law enforcement actions in popular tourist and commercial hubs.
India’s immigration framework has also undergone significant changes. In April 2025, India’s Parliament passed the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which replaced four colonial-era laws and came into force on September 1, 2025.
The new law increased penalties for unauthorised entry or stay to five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 500,000 rupees, mandated the establishment of holding centres in every state, and required educational institutions to report foreign student admissions to immigration authorities.
These enforcement trends have unfolded against the backdrop of deepening diplomatic and economic ties between India and Nigeria. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu visited India in September 2023 to attend the G20 Summit in New Delhi as a guest nation, where he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss cooperation in defence, agriculture, trade, and investment.
Just over a year later, in November 2024, Modi made his first visit to Nigeria in 17 years, the first by an Indian prime minister since 2007. During the two-day visit, he was conferred with Nigeria’s second-highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, becoming only the second foreign dignitary after Queen Elizabeth II to receive the award.
The leaders also signed three Memoranda of Understanding on cultural exchange, customs cooperation, and survey cooperation.
Security cooperation has featured prominently in bilateral engagement. In November 2024, the National Security Advisers of both countries convened for the India–Nigeria Strategic and Counter-Terrorism Dialogue, addressing shared threats from terrorism, organised crime, and illicit activities, including those linked to irregular migration and drug networks involving Nigerian nationals in India.
Economically, Indian companies have invested $27 billion cumulatively in Nigeria, with about 200 companies operating in the country. Bilateral trade stood at $7.89 billion in 2023–2024, down from $11.8 billion in 2022–2023, largely due to reduced crude oil imports from Nigeria, highlighting the broader economic context in which migration issues are unfolding.
Commenting on the underlying drivers of migration, Charles Onunaiju, Research Director at the Centre for China Studies in Abuja, said, “We have a challenge. Since Nigeria is becoming inhospitable, especially for young people with no opportunities, there is desperation to go abroad.”
His remarks point to economic pressures that continue to push Nigerians toward overseas destinations despite rising enforcement risks.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) said it was prepared to receive Nigerians deported from any part of the world. Its Director of Media and Corporate Affairs, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, stated, “The Federal Government has set up an inter-agency committee, comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NiDCOM, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Office of the National Security Adviser, for mass deportations of Nigerians from anywhere.”