More than 11,000 Nigerians applied for asylum in Ireland between 2013 and 2025, according to figures compiled from official Irish immigration data and published in the Asylum Information Database country reports.
A review of 13 editions of the AIDA Ireland country reports, published by the Irish Refugee Council under a project coordinated by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, showed that at least 11,040 Nigerians sought international protection in Ireland during the period covered.
The figures were drawn from data provided by Ireland’s International Protection Office, its predecessor, the Office of the Refugee Applications Commissioner, and Eurostat.
A full-year figure for 2014 was unavailable, while the 2015 figure covered only January to July.
Nigerian asylum applications fluctuated significantly during the period. There were 130 applications in 2013, 85 in the first seven months of 2015, 175 in 2016, 185 in 2017, 251 in 2018 and 386 in 2019.
The figure fell to 208 in 2020 before rising to 451 in 2021.
Applications then increased sharply, reaching 1,108 in 2022 and 2,084 in 2023. The number nearly doubled in 2024 to 4,037, before declining to 1,940 in 2025.
Nigeria ranked as Ireland’s largest source of asylum applications in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. It ranked second in 2019, behind Zimbabwe, and again in 2025, behind Somalia.
Among African nationalities, Nigerians accounted for the largest number of applications across the period. They were followed by Somalia, Zimbabwe, Algeria and South Africa.
The available figures show at least 6,514 applications from Somalis, 4,063 from Zimbabweans, 3,397 from Algerians and 1,569 from South Africans across the years in which those nationalities appeared in the published rankings.
Together, the five African nationalities accounted for at least 26,583 applications. The actual figure could be higher because the AIDA reports generally publish only the leading nationalities each year, with smaller caseloads grouped under “others.”
Ireland received at least 80,656 asylum applications across the full-year periods covered by the reviewed reports. Nigerian applicants therefore accounted for at least 13.69 per cent of applications during those years.
The overall number of people seeking international protection in Ireland also increased substantially during the period.
Applications rose from fewer than 1,000 annually in the early 2010s to 3,276 in 2015, before falling to 2,244 in 2016.
The figure subsequently climbed to 4,781 in 2019 before dropping to 1,566 in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Applications increased sharply afterwards, reaching 13,651 in 2022 and a record 18,560 in 2024. The number declined to 13,159 in 2025.
High rejection rates for Nigerian applicants
The data also show significant changes in the outcomes of Nigerian asylum claims.
Nigerian applicants recorded rejection rates of 96.7 per cent in 2012, 96 per cent in 2013, 97.1 per cent in 2016 and 94.4 per cent in 2018.
The rejection rate was substantially lower in 2021, when 14.3 per cent of decided Nigerian cases were rejected. During that period, 65.7 per cent of decided cases resulted in humanitarian permission to remain rather than full refugee status.
Nationality-specific decision data were not published for 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in the reviewed reports.
The AIDA reports also noted that Nigerian applications have been subject to prioritised processing in Ireland since 2003.
According to the reports, the policy was upheld by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the case known as HID and BA, following a reference from the Irish High Court.
Under the accelerated procedure, appeals in prioritised cases are decided on paper without an oral hearing.
The system was further adjusted in April 2024, when Ireland’s International Protection Office began prioritising applications from the nationality with the highest number of applications during a given period.
Nigerian applicants were prioritised from April 2024 because they represented the largest applicant group at the time. Jordanian applicants were added to the accelerated system in July 2024 after becoming the second-largest group.
The arrangement remained in place for Nigerian and Jordanian applicants in 2025.
During 2025, 4,747 cases were processed through the accelerated procedure, with Nigerians accounting for the largest share.
Of the 5,040 decisions issued under the accelerated procedure that year, 4,712, representing about 93.5 per cent, were rejected on their merits.
The backlog also increased.
Ireland’s Department of Justice reported that 6,255 Nigerian applicants were awaiting decisions on their asylum claims in 2025, more than twice the 2,819 recorded the previous year.
The figures highlight the sharp increase in the number of Nigerians seeking international protection in Ireland in recent years, particularly between 2022 and 2024, even as the country introduced accelerated processing for some nationalities.
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