Germany deported at least 137 Nigerian citizens across five charter flights between February and June 2026, as Europe accelerates coordinated return operations despite a sharp decline in irregular border crossings.

The five documented operations returned 27 Nigerians in February, 37 in March, 24 in April, 23 in May and 26 in June.

The largest single operation occurred on March 10. A charter flight carrying 50 deportees landed at Lagos Cargo Airport in a joint European Union operation hosted by Germany and involving Spain, Austria and Belgium. Germany accounted for 37 of those returned.

“This is the highest single deportation enforced so far in the past three years,” the DERS Team, which monitors deportation arrivals in Nigeria, said in a report documenting the March operation.

The first recorded flight took place on February 18, when 27 Nigerians arrived at Lagos Cargo Airport aboard a World2fly charter aircraft that departed Stuttgart. The flight landed shortly before 2pm.

On April 9, another 24 Nigerians, including women and a 10-year-old minor with asthma, were deported on a charter flight from Frankfurt organised through German authorities and Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency.

Twenty-three Nigerians were returned in May, followed by another 26 on June 17.

The removals come as Germany and the wider European Union tighten asylum and return policies. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government has made reducing irregular migration and increasing returns a central part of its immigration agenda.

Yet irregular crossings into Europe have fallen sharply. Frontex reported that irregular EU border crossings dropped nearly 40% in the first five months of 2026 compared with the same period last year. German Federal Police data showed unauthorised entries fell from 5,801 detections in May 2025 to 3,761 in May 2026.

The DERS Team alleged that Nigerian government agencies did not send representatives to receive deportees at Lagos airport across any of the five operations.

“The deliberate and repeated act of state violation of international legal provisions as well as Germany's own domestic laws to enforce the deportation is a cause for concern,” the DERS Team stated in its March report.

One February case involved a single mother and her three children deported from the Sindelfingen district of Stuttgart, despite reportedly holding documents confirming their residence status. The family later returned to Germany after a volunteer intervened and local authorities confirmed the deportation had been carried out in error.

March deportees included a mother traveling with two children, one autistic and hyperactive, who arrived in Lagos without preparation or resources. The DERS Team described the situation as “heartbreaking”.

The 137 figure does not represent Germany’s total deportations to Nigeria for the year. Data compiled by DERS shows at least 457 Nigerians were returned from Germany across 14 charter flights between January 2025 and May 2026.