Japa: Over 300 Nigerians seek asylum in Iceland

Japa people

Iceland’s Directorate of Immigration, Útlendingastofnun, said it received 331 asylum applications from Nigerians since 2020.

The agency’s annual statistical workbook, Tölfræði verndarsviðs, reveals 37 filings during the pandemic year of 2020, 50 in 2021, 67 in 2022, a post-COVID surge to 125 in 2023, and 52 from January to May 2024.

When Iceland cleared its 2019 backlog in 2020, it decided 96 Nigerian files; 44 were granted residence permits, three full refugee statuses, and 41 humanitarian visas, while 37 applications were denied.

The rest were closed administratively as Dublin transfers to the first Schengen country where a claimant had entered.

Of 60 Nigerian cases resolved in 2021, only three were granted refugee status; 14 were rejected after a substantive interview, and 43 were shunted under Dublin rules.

That year, the success rate for Nigerian applicants fell to five per cent as Iceland resorted to the European Union mechanism that allows smaller states to pass responsibility to their larger neighbours.

However, the numbers rose again in 2022, when 67 Nigerians applied, and the Directorate examined 76 files, issuing 22 permits—two refugee and 20 humanitarian—turning down 28 claims and returning 26 to other countries. Punch