How Many Indians Has Canada Deported in 2026 | Statistics & Facts

Indians Deported by Canada in 2026

Canada’s immigration enforcement system has shifted dramatically over the past year, and nowhere is that shift more visible than in the removal figures for Indian nationals. As Canada works through record numbers of temporary residents whose permits have expired or been refused, Indian citizens — long the largest single group of international students and temporary foreign workers in the country — have moved to the very top of the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) removal statistics for 2026. The scale of this shift marks a clear departure from prior years, when Mexican nationals typically led the country comparison.

This report breaks down exactly how many Indians Canada has deported in 2026, using the CBSA’s own released removal figures for the first half of the year. It covers the total numbers, how India compares with every other nationality on the removals list, the quarter-by-quarter pace of enforcement, why the numbers are climbing so quickly, and how the current backlog of pending cases suggests this trend has further to run. Every figure below comes from CBSA’s official monthly and quarterly removal statistics for 2026.

Interesting Facts About Indian Deportations from Canada in 2026

H1 2026 Removals: Top Nationalities (CBSA Data)
Indian       |████████████████████████████████| 3,323
Mexican      |███████████████                 | 1,573
American     |███▎                           | 372
Colombian    |███▏                           | 354
Romanian     |██▋                            | 293

Source: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) Immigration Removal Statistics, January-June 2026

The single most important number here is 3,323 — the count of Indian nationals removed from Canada between January and June 2026, according to CBSA’s own released data. That figure alone represents 31.3% of everyone removed from Canada in the first half of the year, meaning roughly one in every three people deported from Canada in 2026 has been an Indian citizen. No other nationality comes close: Mexico, in second place, accounts for less than half that number at 1,573 removals over the same six months.

What makes this figure especially striking is the pace. India’s H1 2026 total of 3,323 already sits close to its entire 2025 annual total of 3,779, meaning Canada is on track to remove roughly double the number of Indian nationals in 2026 compared with the prior year. The 22.2% share of India in CBSA’s pending case backlog — 6,980 of 31,482 total pending removals — confirms this isn’t a temporary spike; it reflects a structural shift in who is moving through Canada’s enforcement pipeline, with Indian cases now representing the single largest block awaiting action.

Total Indian Deportations from Canada in 2026 | H1 Removal Numbers

H1 2026: Indian Removals vs Total CBSA Removals
Total removals, all nationalities   |████████████████████████████████| 10,607
Indian removals                     |██████████                      | 3,323

Source: CBSA Immigration Removal Statistics, Monthly Data January-June 2026

Canada deported 3,323 Indian nationals in the first six months of 2026 — a number that, on its own, makes India the single largest nationality in the country’s entire removals system. Set against the 10,607 total removals CBSA carried out across all nationalities in the same period, Indians represent nearly a third of every person removed from Canada so far this year. That share has climbed sharply from 16.3% for the whole of 2025, when Indian removals totaled 3,779 for the entire twelve months and Mexico held the top spot instead.

The comparison between the two years is the clearest evidence of how fast this trend is accelerating: Canada removed almost as many Indian nationals in six months of 2026 as it did in all of 2025. If the second half of the year tracks anywhere close to the first, India’s 2026 annual total could land well above 6,000 — nearly double the prior year’s figure — cementing India’s position as the top removal nationality for the first time since 2020, when Indian removals also briefly outpaced Mexico’s at 1,424 versus 1,391.

Top Nationalities Deported from Canada in 2026 | Country Comparison

H1 2026 CBSA Removals by Nationality
Indian        |████████████████████████████████| 3,323 (31.3%)
Mexican       |███████████████                 | 1,573 (14.8%)
American      |███▎                           | 372  ( 3.5%)
Colombian     |███▏                           | 354  ( 3.3%)
Romanian      |██▋                            | 293  ( 2.8%)
Bangladeshi   |██▏                            | 227  ( 2.1%)
Pakistani     |██                              | 207  ( 2.0%)
Nigerian      |█▉                             | 205  ( 1.9%)

Source: CBSA Immigration Removal Statistics, January-June 2026; Nigeria data via Nigerian federal reporting

The gap between India and every other country on this list is the story of 2026’s removal statistics. India’s 3,323 removals more than double Mexico’s 1,573, and Mexico itself sits well ahead of every other individual country — the third-place nation, the United States, trails at just 372, roughly a ninth of India’s total. That concentration reflects the sheer scale of India’s temporary resident presence in Canada rather than any unusually high rate of non-compliance: India has for years supplied Canada’s largest international student population and one of its largest groups of temporary foreign workers, spread across manufacturing, food production, hospitality, caregiving, and transportation — sectors CBSA data shows facing consistent labour shortages that draw large numbers of temporary arrivals.

Beyond India and Mexico, the remaining top-10 nationalities — Colombia, Romania, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nigeria — each account for a comparatively modest 2-4% of total removals, together making up less than the Indian total alone. Nigeria’s presence on the list is notable in itself: it is the only African country to rank among Canada’s top-10 removal nationalities in both 2025 and the first half of 2026, rising from 10th place with 438 removals in 2025 to 9th place with 205 in H1 2026 alone, roughly matching its full prior-year pace in just six months.

Quarterly Trend of Indian Deportations from Canada in 2026

Indian Removals by Quarter, 2026
Q1 2026 (Jan-Mar)   |████████████████████████████████| 1,712 (32.5% of Q1 total)
Q2 2026 (Apr-Jun)   |██████████████████████████████  | 1,611 (30.1% of Q2 total)

Source: CBSA Immigration Removal Statistics, Quarterly Breakdown Q1-Q2 2026

Looking at the quarterly data shows that Indian removals have remained remarkably consistent across the first half of 2026 rather than spiking in any single month. Q1 2026 recorded 1,712 Indian removals, representing 32.5% of that quarter’s total, while Q2 followed closely at 1,611, or 30.1% of Q2’s slightly larger total of 5,347. The near-identical pace across both quarters suggests this isn’t a one-off enforcement surge tied to a specific operation, but rather a sustained, ongoing pattern of case processing working through a large backlog of Indian nationals whose temporary status has lapsed or been refused.

That consistency matters for anyone trying to project where the full-year 2026 total will land. If the second half of the year continues at even a slightly lower pace than the first — say, around 1,400-1,600 per quarter — India’s annual total for 2026 would still likely finish somewhere between 6,000 and 7,000, nearly double the 3,779 recorded across all of 2025. That would represent the largest single-year total for Indian removals from Canada in the period for which comparable CBSA nationality data is publicly available.

Why Indian Deportations from Canada Are Rising in 2026

Source: CBSA Removal Statistics 2026; Statistics Canada, The Daily, Q4 2025 Population Estimates (March 18, 2026)

The core driver behind rising Indian removal numbers is straightforward: when a nationality holds the largest share of Canada’s temporary resident population, even a relatively low individual non-compliance rate produces a very high number of absolute removals. India has for years supplied the largest cohort of Canada’s international students and one of its largest groups of temporary foreign workers, so as CBSA works through visa and status violation cases across the system, Indian nationals inevitably make up a large proportion of the total simply due to population size, not because of any unusual rate of rule-breaking.

That dynamic has been sharply compounded by Canada’s broader temporary resident policy reset. Ottawa’s tightening of study permit caps and temporary foreign worker rules has driven new international student arrivals down 74% over the past two years, while the country’s overall non-permanent resident population fell from a peak of 3.15 million in October 2024 to 2.68 million by January 2026 — a deliberate policy-driven contraction. The Canada population decline data shows this drop is the single biggest factor behind Canada’s first-ever annual population decrease, and the same enforcement push that is reducing temporary resident numbers is generating the removal orders now working through CBSA’s system — with Indian nationals, as the largest affected group, appearing disproportionately in the resulting removal statistics.

Pending Removal Cases and CBSA Backlog Statistics in Canada 2026

CBSA Pending Removal Backlog by Nationality
Indian cases    |███████████████| 6,980 (22.2% of backlog)
All other cases |██████████████████████████████████| 24,502 (77.8%)
Total pending   |███████████████████████████████████████████████| 31,482

Source: CBSA Removals-in-Progress Inventory, 2026

Beyond the removals already completed in 2026, the pending case backlog offers the clearest signal of where the numbers are headed next. Of the 31,482 removal cases still working through CBSA’s system, 6,980 — or 22.2% — involve Indian nationals, making India the single largest nationality represented in the pending inventory by a wide margin. That share closely mirrors India’s 31.3% of completed H1 2026 removals, suggesting the pipeline feeding into future removal statistics is weighted in almost exactly the same proportion as what has already occurred.

This backlog composition matters because it functions as a leading indicator rather than a lagging one: cases already logged in the pending inventory will, in most instances, eventually convert into completed removals as documentation, appeals, and travel arrangements are finalized. With more than 1 in 5 pending cases tied to Indian nationals, the structural pressure pushing India to the top of Canada’s removal statistics shows no sign of easing in the second half of 2026, particularly as CBSA continues working through the backlog generated by the broader temporary resident policy tightening described above.

Indian Temporary Resident Population in Canada 2026 | Why the Numbers Are So Large

Indian Presence in Canada's Temporary Resident System (Historic Share)
International students    |███████████████████████████| Largest nationality
Temporary foreign workers |█████████████████████████  | One of the largest
Permanent residency (2022)|█████████████████████      | 27% of all admissions
Asylum & visitor claims   |███████████████            | Among top source country

Source: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Committee Fact Sheet, CIMM-India; 2021 Census of Canada

The scale of India’s removal numbers in 2026 only makes sense against the backdrop of just how large India’s temporary and permanent presence in Canada has become over the past decade. As of the most recent government fact sheet, India supplied 27% of all Canadian permanent resident admissions, 22% of temporary foreign worker admissions, and an extraordinary 45% of Canada’s entire international student population — figures that made India Canada’s single largest source country across nearly every major immigration category. With 1.35 million people of Indian origin recorded in the 2021 Census, and tens of thousands more arriving annually on study and work permits through the years that followed, India built the single largest pool of temporary status-holders of any nationality in the country.

That scale is precisely why even a modest percentage of status violations, permit expirations, or refused renewals among Indian nationals translates into the largest absolute removal numbers of any country once Canada began tightening its temporary resident rules in 2025 and 2026. A nationality with a smaller overall population in Canada — even one with a comparatively higher non-compliance rate — would still produce fewer total removals simply because the underlying pool is smaller. India’s removal totals in 2026 are, in large part, a mathematical consequence of two decades of being Canada’s largest source of temporary residents colliding with a rapid, government-driven contraction of that same temporary resident system.

Historical Comparison: Indian Deportations from Canada 2020-2026

Indian Removals from Canada — Historical Comparison
2020            |████████████                     | 1,424 (led that year)
2025 (full yr)  |████████████████████████████████ | 3,779 (16.3% share)
H1 2026 (6 mo)  |████████████████████████████████ | 3,323 (31.3% share)

Source: CBSA Historical Removal Statistics 2020-2026

The 2020-2026 comparison shows this isn’t entirely unprecedented — India briefly topped Canada’s removal nationality rankings once before, in 2020, with 1,424 removals narrowly ahead of Mexico’s 1,391. But the scale and margin of India’s 2026 lead are without precedent: where the 2020 gap between India and Mexico was just 33 people, the H1 2026 gap stands at 1,750 people, with India’s removal count now more than double Mexico’s. For useful international context on how enforcement scale compares across countries, the mass deportation statistics for the US show ICE arrests running at roughly 4.4 times the pace of the prior administration — a reminder that Canada’s own enforcement acceleration is occurring alongside a broader North American shift toward more aggressive interior immigration enforcement.

India’s rise also stands out against how other Western countries are handling their own Indian national removal caseloads. The UK’s deportation statistics show Indian enforced returns almost doubling to 781 in the year ending December 2025, alongside 8,652 voluntary returns — both far smaller in absolute terms than Canada’s H1 2026 figures, but following the same directional trend of rising Indian removal numbers as Western immigration systems tighten enforcement on expired student and worker permits simultaneously across multiple countries.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

Email ID:

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email

Email *

SUBSCRIBE