Nigerians in India

Last updated
Nigerians in India
Flag of Nigeria.svg Flag of India.svg
India Nigeria Locator.svg
Total population
50,000 [1] [2]
Regions with significant populations
New Delhi  · Mumbai  · Chennai  · Bangalore  · Kolkata  · Jaipur  · Kanpur  · Hyderabad  · Lucknow  · Ranchi  · Visakhapatnam  · Raipur  · Ahmedabad  · Ludhiana  · Patna  · Bhubaneswar  · Mysore  · Faridabad
Languages
Igbo  · Nigerian English  ·Other languages of Nigeria  · Indian languages
Religion
Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Islam
Related ethnic groups
Nigerian people

Nigerians in India form one of the largest African communities in the country. As of November 2013, there were about 10,000 Nigerians living and working in india, and now as of 2024 there are around 50,000 Nigerians living and working in India. They live in cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kanpur, Hyderabad and Lucknow . [1] [2]

Contents

Demographics

It is estimated that there are more than 2,500 Nigerians living in Delhi, 3,000 in Bangalore, and with another 4,000 spread across the rest of the country. Neither the Indian police nor the Nigerian High Commission has details of the number of Nigerians currently residing in India. [3] Many Nigerians are also found in several unauthorized colonies like Munirka, Uttam Nagar and Mukherjee Nagar. [4]

Inter-ethnic relations

Some Nigerians enter India illegally via Bangladesh. [5] [6]

Many Nigerians associate themselves with crime mainly drug trafficking and financial fraud; around 500 Nigerians are held in various jails across India. [2] [7] [8]

Organizations

The All India Nigerian Students and Community Association (AINSCA), a non-official arm of the Nigerian embassy helps members of the community living in India. It liaisons proactively with Delhi police to nab unscrupulous elements in the community. [9] It also shields its members involved in illegal sex trafficking from repercussions. [10] Eddie, the chairman of AINSCA was filmed by BBC Africa Eye as one of the traffickers.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illegal drug trade</span> Global black market

The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws. The think tank Global Financial Integrity's Transnational Crime and the Developing World report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652 billion in 2014 alone. With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally, and it remains very difficult for local authorities to reduce the rates of drug consumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child prostitution</span> Prostitution involving a child

Child prostitution is prostitution involving a child, and it is a form of commercial sexual exploitation of children. The term normally refers to prostitution of a minor, or person under the legal age of consent. In most jurisdictions, child prostitution is illegal as part of general prohibition on prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in India</span>

Prostitution is legal in India, but a number of related activities including soliciting, kerb crawling, owning or managing a brothel, prostitution in a hotel, child prostitution, pimping and pandering are illegal. There are, however, many brothels illegally operating in Indian cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, and Nagpur, among others. UNAIDS estimate there were 657,829 prostitutes in the country as of 2016. Other unofficial estimates have calculated India has roughly 3 million prostitutes. India is widely regarded as having one of the world's largest commercial sex industry. It has emerged as a global hub of sex tourism, attracting sex tourists from wealthy countries. The sex industry in India is a multi-billion dollar one, and one of the fastest growing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Asia</span>

The legality of prostitution in Asia varies by country. There is often a significant difference in Asia between prostitution laws and the practice of prostitution. In 2011, the Asian Commission on AIDS estimated there were 10 million sex workers in Asia and 75 million male customers.

<i>Ya ba</i> Tablets combining methamphetamine and caffeine

Ya ba is a drug containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine. It was formerly known as yama. Although it is illegal, it has considerable use in Southeast Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugees in India</span> Overview of legally registered refugees residing in India

Since its independence in 1947, India has accepted various groups of refugees from neighbouring countries, including partition refugees from former British Indian territories that now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959, Chakma refugees from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s, other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s and most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1992, India was seen to be hosting 400,000 refugees from eight countries. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.

Peter Lloyd is a journalist and was senior producer for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's news and current affairs program Lateline. He was previously the ABC's South Asia correspondent based in New Delhi, from where he reported across all ABC national and international radio and television news and current affairs programs.

Ethnic relations in India have historically been complex. It refers to attitudes and behaviours toward peoples of other ethnicities or races. India is ethnically diverse, with more than 2,000 different ethnic groups. There is also significant diversity within regions, and almost every state and several districts has its own distinct mixture of ethnicities, traditions, and culture. Throughout the history of India, ethnic relations have been both positive and negative.

Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits, drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.

Prostitution in Kolkata is present in different forms and Kolkata's sex industry is one of the largest in Asia. Prostitution may be brothel-based or non-brothel based as in the case of call girls. India is regarded as having one of the largest commercial sex trades globally. Kolkata has many red-light districts, out of which Sonagachi is the largest red-light district in Asia with more than 50,000 commercial sex workers.

Crime in India has been recorded since the British Raj, with comprehensive statistics now compiled annually by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (India).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Bangladesh</span>

Prostitution is legal and regulated in Bangladesh. Prostitutes must register and state an affidavit stating that they are entering prostitution of their own free choice and that they are unable to find any other work. Bangladeshi prostitutes often suffer poor social conditions and are frequently socially degraded.

The 13 September 2008 Delhi bombings were a series of five synchronised bomb blasts that took place within the span of a few minutes on Saturday, 13 September 2008 at various locations in Delhi, India. The first bomb exploded at 18:07 IST, and four other blasts followed in succession, with at least 20 people killed and over 90 injured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prostitution in Africa</span>

The legal status of prostitution in Africa varies widely. It is frequently common in practice, partially driven by the widespread poverty in many sub-Saharan African countries, and is one of the drivers for the prevalence of AIDS in Africa. Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire permit the operations of brothels. In other countries, prostitution may be legal, but brothels are not allowed to operate. In some countries where prostitution is illegal, the law is rarely enforced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunitha Krishnan</span> Indian social activist

Sunitha Krishnan is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child trafficking in India</span>

India has a very high volume of child trafficking. As many as one child disappears every eight minutes, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. In some cases, children are taken from their homes to be bought and sold in the market. In other cases, children are tricked into the hands of traffickers by being presented an opportunity for a job, when in reality, upon arrival they become enslaved. In India, there are many children trafficked for various reasons such as labor, begging, and sexual exploitation. Because of the nature of this crime, it is hard to track; due to the poor enforcement of laws, it is difficult to prevent. As such, there are only vague estimates of figures regarding the issue. India is a prime area for child trafficking to occur, as many of those trafficked are from, travel through or destined to go to India. Though most of the trafficking occurs within the country, there is also a significant number of children trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh. There are many different causes that lead to child trafficking, with the primary reasons being poverty, weak law enforcement, and a lack of good quality public education. The traffickers that take advantage of children can be from another area in India, or could even know the child personally. Children who return home after being trafficked often face shame in their communities, rather than being welcomed home.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somnath Bharti</span> Indian politician and lawyer

Somnath Bharti is an Indian politician and lawyer.

An illegal immigrant in India is a foreigner who has entered India either without valid documents or who initially had a valid document, but has overstayed beyond the permitted time, as per the general provisions of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003. Such persons are not eligible for citizenship by registration or naturalisation. They are also liable to be imprisoned for 2–8 years and fined.

Illicit drug trafficking in the West Indian Ocean (WIO) has increasingly become a major security concern for many States in the region, and is gaining international attention. The Indian Ocean borders 24 states, and accounts for a third of the world’s ocean area. Until recently, other challenges, such as piracy off the coast of Somalia, has been at the forefront of international action. However, the utilisation of the Southern route by drug traffickers, and the consequent issues this has caused, has led to increased focus on how to tackle this issue.

Nigerians in South Africa are people currently residing in South Africa, who were either born, raised in or have ancestry from Nigeria.

References

  1. 1 2 "Why are Nigerians leaving India's Goa state?". BBC. 18 November 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "‘More than 500 Nigerians in Indian jails’", Vanguard, 11 January 2012.
  3. "Fall from Race", India Today, 18 June 2011.
  4. "On Delhi’s vilified Nigerian migrants Archived 2016-08-26 at the Wayback Machine ", Sunday Guardian , 16 October 2011.
  5. "Why Are Nigerians Illicitly Landing in India's Northeast from Bangladesh?".
  6. "Nigerians held in Meghalaya".
  7. "Goans annoyed with Nigerians, their way of life: CM Parsekar". Panaji, India: Indian Express. May 31, 2016.
  8. "NCB raises issue of Nigerians involved in trafficking with their top drug cop". Hindustan Times. Dec 18, 2022.
  9. "Being African in India: 'We are seen as demons'". Aljazeera. Retrieved June 26, 2016.
  10. "Imported for my body: Trafficked to India for sex". BBC News.