African nationals seeking asylum in Italy faced a tough path to protection in 2025, with applicants from Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, and Tunisia among those whose applications were frequently rejected, according to the Asylum Information Database (AIDA).
- African nationals, particularly from Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Nigeria, faced very high asylum rejection rates in Italy in 2025.
- Moroccan applicants saw 90% of their decisions rejected, while Egypt and Tunisia experienced rejection rates of roughly 83% and 85%, respectively.
- Nigerian applicants had a 65% rejection rate, though some did obtain refugee status, subsidiary protection, or special protection.
- Italy issued over 104,000 first-instance decisions in 2025, with an overall protection rate—including special protection—of 30%.
The data reveal a difficult reality for people hoping to secure protection in one of Europe's major migrant destinations: submitting an asylum application does not guarantee the right to stay.
Italy recorded 9,485 asylum applicants from Morocco in 2025. Authorities made 6,315 decisions on applications from Moroccan nationals, rejecting 5,695 of them.
For Morocco’s fellow North African state, Egypt, 10,685 decisions involved Egyptian applicants; 8,900 were rejections, equivalent to roughly 83%.
Tunisia's figures were also stark: 5,035 of 5,895 decisions were rejected, a rate of about 85%.
DON’T MISS THIS: 2 African countries listed as UK lawmaker promises to end immigration from the Third World and ‘discriminate’
The figures suggest that applicants from these three North African countries faced particularly high rejection rates among the nationalities listed in the database.
Over in West Africa, Nigeria, one of Africa's largest countries by population, also featured in the figures. Italy recorded 3,385 Nigerian applicants in 2025, while 3,390 decisions were made on Nigerian cases.
Of those decisions, 2,220 were rejections, representing approximately 65%, as seen in the Asylum Information Database Italy report.
For the West African country, authorities granted refugee status in 660 cases, subsidiary protection in 55, and special protection in 460.
These figures show that, although rejection was the most common outcome among the decisions recorded, some applicants successfully obtained protection.
Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria were not alone. Georgia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also recorded high rejection rates in the table, although the figures cover countries beyond Africa and should not be treated as a complete picture of Italy's asylum system.
A difficult year for asylum applicants
Across Italy, authorities issued 104,560 first-instance decisions in 2025, with the overall protection rate, including special protection, standing at 30%, according to the report.
Italy registered 126,635 first-time asylum applications during the year, down from 151,120 in 2024.
Yet the 2025 figure was still almost double the 77,200 applications recorded in 2022.
The data, however, do not establish why individual claims were rejected, and a rejection does not by itself prove that an applicant's circumstances were illegitimate.
Ultimately, the figures offer a snapshot of the challenges facing asylum seekers, as Italy continues to process large numbers of claims while determining who qualifies for protection under its laws.