New data from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice has revealed that Nigerians are among the least represented nationalities in sex offence convictions across the country.

The figures, obtained by The Telegraph in March through a Freedom of Information request, detail sex crime convictions by nationality between 2021 and 2023.

According to the data, foreign nationals were responsible for up to 25% of sex crime convictions during the three-year period, including offences such as rape. When adjusted for population size, some nationalities were found to be significantly more likely than British citizens to be convicted of these offences. Notably, Afghans and Eritreans were over 20 times more likely to be convicted of sex offences compared to Britons.

In total, foreign nationals were 71% more likely than British citizens to be convicted of sex-related crimes. Romanians had the highest number of convictions, totaling 987, followed by Polish nationals with 208, Indians with 148, and Pakistanis with 144.

However, when conviction rates were analyzed per capita, Afghans topped the list with 59 convictions per 10,000 people in the UK 22.3 times the rate for British citizens. Eritreans followed closely, with 53.6 convictions per 10,000 people.

In stark contrast, Nigerians were among the nationalities with conviction rates lower than those of British citizens. While several Sub-Saharan African countries appeared more prominently in the data including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Somalia, Algeria, Angola, Gambia, Tunisia, and Libya Nigerians were notably underrepresented in the statistics.

The report also highlighted regional patterns: individuals from North Africa were convicted at a rate 6.6 times higher than Britons, while those from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa had rates 3.8 and 2.6 times higher, respectively.

These findings have fueled ongoing debates in UK policy circles, with some think tanks linking elevated rates of crimes such as rape, violence, robbery, fraud, and drug offences to broader migration patterns.