Nigeria and the EU Sign a Readmission Agreement After a Decade of Talks

On 10 November 2026, Nigeria and the European Union signed a readmission agreement at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja. The deal was signed during a visit by Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, and was welcomed by Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu. It closes negotiations that Nigeria's Ministry of Interior says lasted about a decade; the Council of the EU first authorised the European Commission to negotiate in September 2016.

The agreement sets out procedures for identifying and returning people who do not have the legal right to stay in Nigeria or in an EU member state. According to the Nigerian government's statement, it covers three groups: people holding valid Nigerian travel documents, people who travelled with documents but lost or destroyed them, and people who travelled without any identification, whose identity the government will establish through national records. Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo described it as a step towards a more orderly, dignified and mutually beneficial migration system, and noted that Nigeria already has a similar arrangement with the United Kingdom.

The signing came with money attached. The Nigerian Tribune reports that the EU has committed EUR 112 million to Nigeria: EUR 66 million for migration-related projects, EUR 26 million for security work including efforts to curb small arms proliferation and drug trafficking, and EUR 20 million under the European Peace Facility for counterterrorism, the first bilateral measure for Nigeria under that facility. The two sides also launched a Senior Officials Dialogue on Migration and Security. "Nigeria is a key partner for Europe, and our ties are steadily growing stronger," Brunner said.

Nigeria's priorities go beyond returns. Brunner noted that about 260,000 Nigerians live legally in the EU and pointed to police cooperation, the fight against trafficking and smuggling, and legal migration pathways as areas that need continued work. An EU delegation official said the talks had not been easy, as Nigeria wanted anti-trafficking, anti-drug trafficking and legal migration pathways included; those topics are now due to be discussed after the readmission agreement is concluded. Tunji-Ojo asked for real-time information sharing on trafficking and smuggling, and Brunner also met the IOM, UNHCR, UNODC and Nigerian anti-trafficking networks during the visit.

The agreement is not yet in force. It still needs the consent of the European Parliament and conclusion by the Council of the EU, and it will take effect on the first day of the second month after both sides confirm they have completed their procedures. With Nigeria, the EU now has readmission agreements or arrangements with 24 countries.

Why it matters

A return deal is only as fair as the procedures behind it. Public statements so far say little about how individual rights will be checked case by case or how returnees will be helped to restart their lives in Nigeria, so the detail that reaches the European Parliament will show whether a dignified return is a working standard or only a phrase.