At least 1,917 Nigerians applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2024 and 2025, according to data obtained by Sunday PUNCH from the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND).
The figures were contained in the Asylum Information Database’s Netherlands country reports for 2024 and 2025. The reports were compiled under the AIDA project by the Dutch Council for Refugees, VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, and published using data from the IND and Eurostat.
Nigeria was one of only four African nationalities to feature among the Netherlands’ top 10 countries of origin for asylum applicants in both years.
Applications from Nigerians increased year-on-year, rising from 931 in 2024 to 986 in 2025, representing a 5.9 per cent increase.
The 2024 figure comprised 770 first-time applicants and 161 subsequent applicants, according to the AIDA-NL 2024 Update. In 2025, there were 813 first-time applicants and 173 subsequent applicants, according to the AIDA-NL 2025 Update.
The reports noted, however, that the figures did not include family reunification applications. As a result, the number of Nigerians who joined family members in the Netherlands during the period is not reflected in the asylum statistics.
Globally, Nigeria ranked ninth among the top 10 nationalities of asylum applicants in 2024. Syria recorded the highest number with 11,655 applications, followed by Iraq with 2,306, Türkiye with 1,905, Eritrea with 1,506, and applicants listed under the “Unknown” nationality category with 1,437. Algeria recorded 1,216 applications, Somalia 1,119, Yemen 1,089 and Iran 742.
In 2025, Nigeria rose to sixth among the identified nationalities, with 986 applications. Syria recorded 3,373, Eritrea 3,178, Türkiye 1,530, Algeria 1,454 and Somalia 1,384. Nigeria was followed by Afghanistan with 803, Sudan with 796 and Pakistan with 689.
Among African nationalities, Eritrea recorded the highest number of applications across the two years, with 4,684. Algeria followed with 2,670, Somalia with 2,503 and Nigeria with 1,917.
Sudan featured among the top 10 nationalities in 2025 with 796 applications, while its 2024 applications were included in the broader “Others” category.
Taken together, the four African nationalities that featured among the top 10 in both years, alongside Sudan in 2025, accounted for at least 12,570 applications out of the Netherlands’ combined 59,599 asylum applications during the two-year period. This represents about 21.1 per cent of the total.
Meanwhile, data on application outcomes showed that Nigerian applicants received 515 first-instance decisions in 2025. Of these, 425, representing 83 per cent, were rejected.
