Inyang, ‘Nigerian Asylum Seekers in the United States’, 2026

P.O. Inyang, ‘Nigerian Asylum Seekers in the United States: the Challenge of Credibility Assessments in the Age of Digital Evidence’, 2026 African Journal of Legal Studies, 18(2), 195-214

Abstract

Nigerian citizens fleeing insurgent violence or anti-LGBTQ+ laws form a growing cohort of U.S. asylum applicants, yet their claims often turn on credibility assessments shaped by evidentiary gaps. Digital evidence, social media activity, messaging records, and online traces, offer new avenues for corroboration but also introduce risks of misinterpretation, privacy intrusion, and structural bias, particularly for individuals who conceal their identities to survive. This article investigates the U.S. legal framework governing credibility determinations under the REAL ID Act and key decisions such as Matter of A-B-, analysing how digital expectations intersect with the lived realities of applicants fleeing Boko Haram and persecution under Nigeria’s Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act of 2013. Drawing on international human rights standards, including the UNCHR Handbook and the ICCPR, it argues that digital evidence has become a decisive, and sometimes distorting, force in asylum adjudication and offers reforms to ensure more context-sensitive and rights-consistent credibility assessments.

Keywords: Nigerian asylum seekers; credibility assessment; digital evidence; LGBTQ+ rights; U.S. asylum law