Flight for safety: Nigerian refugee figure hits 5-year high

Despite COVID-19, more Nigerians are fleeing the country as the number of refugees hit the highest in five years in 2020.

According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), about 352,000 Nigerians migrated to other countries as refugees in 2020, 19 percent higher than 296,000 refugees recorded in 2019.

Violent attacks perpetuated by Boko Haram and other armed groups in Nigeria, hunger and poverty are forcing many to flee to neighbouring countries for safety.

A refugee is a person who has fled his/her country of origin and is unable or unwilling to return because they are at risk of serious human right violation and prosecution there.

Why are Nigerians leaving?

There are several reasons Nigerians are fleeing and seeking refuge outside the country

Many of the refugees are fleeing the violence and armed conflicts in the country. The Boko Haram insurgency, which began in 2009 in Nigeria’s Northern state of Borno, combined with counter-insurgency operations and communal clashes over scarce resources have led to the loss of many lives.

According to the Global Conflict Tracker, nearly 350,000 people have been killed in North-east Nigeria since 2009.

Fearing and fleeing the insecurity, an estimated 2 million people have fled their homes, according to the UNHCR. Many of them are internally displaced while others have sought refugees in neighbouring countries.

To date, the Lake Chad Basin region is grappling with a complex humanitarian emergency. Over 3.2 million people are displaced, including over 2.9 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North-eastern Nigeria. Lake Chad is mainly in the far west of Chad, bordering north-eastern Nigeria.

Kidnapping has surged to its highest in at least in a decade, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. From about 45 people kidnapped in 2010, the number jumped to 445 in 2014 when Chibok girls were abducted, and 1,200 in the first half of 2021.

According to data from Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), there have been 2,943 abduction cases and 5,800 death cases due to insecurity between January and June 2021.

However, Boko Haram and other forms of insecurity are not the only reasons Nigerians are leaving in search of a new life elsewhere. Hunger and poverty are also pushing people out.

The conflict-induced food insecurity and severe malnutrition have risen to critical levels in certain parts of Nigeria and are affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.

According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), 3.4 million people are facing acute hunger and 300,000 children are suffering from acute malnutrition in some North-eastern states.

Nigerians are also getting poorer by the day, which is making it hard to obtain basic necessities. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 40 percent of people who live in Nigeria live below the poverty line of N137,430 ($381.75) a year, representing 82.9 million people. On a monthly basis, this is N11, 452 and N381 on a daily basis.

Nigeria is facing a food crisis and the poor are the most affected. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations in a report on food security and nutrition analysis released in 2020 predicted that about 13.8 million people in Nigeria would be facing an acute food shortage crisis between June and August 2021.

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It also said the number could grow to about 14 million if measures were not taken in time to avert the hunger crisis.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate has risen to 33.3 percent in Q4’ 2020, the second-highest in the world after Namibia. More jobless Nigerians means more people in extreme poverty.

Where are they going?

According to UNHCR, over 171,000 of Nigerians sought refuge in Niger in 2020.

The trend has spilled over into this year as well. Already, as of March 2021, around 77,000 Nigerians have sought refuge in Niger’s Maradi region, some 7,660 since the start of the year as banditry and armed attacks spread, according to the United Nations.

Even though Niger is not free of violence, it has continued to grant access to Nigeria, despite border restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNHCR teams in Niger have recorded a spike in deadly violence inside Maradi itself, with more casualties and serious incidents reported in January and February 2021 than in the second half of 2020. Refugees describe gruesome murders, kidnappings for ransom, and looted villages. Many have also been caught up in clashes between farmers and herders as well as vigilantism, as self-defence groups are being set up in most villages.

Despite the unrest in Niger, some Nigerians will rather be there than in their own country.

Asides from Niger, 117,000 fled to Cameroon, 18,000 Nigerians went to Italy, 16,000 people sought refuge in Chad, 9,000 in Germany, 8,000 and 4,000 in Canada and France, respectively.

A decline in asylum seekers

While a refugee is someone who has been accepted into another country legally, an asylum seeker is a person who has sought protection as a refugee, but whose claim for refugee status has not yet been assessed.

Not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognised as a refugee, but every refugee is initially an asylum seeker.

Many Nigerians were accepted as refugees in 2020 while many were still waiting to be refugees. Over 73,000 Nigerians sought asylum in other countries in 2020, a 35 percent decline from 113,000 people recorded in 2019.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the related introduction of movement restrictions and border closures, some countries applied certain administrative measures such as temporary closure of asylum authorities, suspension of asylum interviews and suspension of lodging applications, which resulted in a drop in the number.

Over 16,484 Nigerians sought asylum in Germany, 14,651 sought asylum in the United States of America, and 9,148 sought asylum in Canada in 2020.