ITALY rejected 2,220 Nigerians who applied for asylum in 2025, while another 4,120 Nigerian cases were still awaiting decisions at the end of the year.
The figures were disclosed in the 2025 Italy Country Report of the Asylum Information Database (AIDA), prepared by the Association for Legal Studies on Immigration using data from Italian asylum authorities and the European Union Agency for Asylum.
The report recorded 3,385 Nigerian asylum applications, making Nigeria the only sub-Saharan African country among Italy’s 10 largest nationalities of asylum seekers.
Of the 3,390 decisions made on Nigerian cases, 660 applicants received full refugee status, representing a 19.47 per cent recognition rate. Another 55 Nigerians obtained subsidiary protection, while 460 were granted special protection under Italian law.
Overall, 1,175 Nigerians received some form of protection, translating to a 34.66 per cent approval rate, above Italy’s national average of 30 per cent.
Despite the decline in applications compared with 2024, Italy continued to grapple with a significant backlog of asylum claims.
“In 2025, 126,635 first asylum requests were registered in Italy, representing a decrease compared to 2024 (when 151,120 applications were registered), but still almost double the number of applications registered in 2022 (77,200),” the report stated.
It further disclosed that “the overall protection rate (including special protection) at first instance stood at 30%, a slight decrease compared to 2024, when it was 35%, but even more significant if compared with 2022, when the protection rate was of 47%.”
Egypt topped the African countries listed, with 11,790 applications, followed by Morocco with 9,485 and Tunisia with 6,290. Their respective rejection rates stood at 83.30 per cent, 90.18 per cent and 85.41 per cent.
The report also listed 16 unaccompanied Nigerian children among minors who sought asylum in Italy in 2025.
