OTTAWA — More than 4,500 Indian nationals were removed from Canada in the first nine months of 2026, making Indians the largest group among all enforced removals for the first time since 2020, the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) published statistics show. The Hindustan Times reported the updated CBSA figures on Monday: 4,526 Indians were removed between January and September, out of a total of 16,426 enforced removals — over 27 per cent of the whole, yaani more than one in every four people removed.
Source: CBSA removal statistics; Hindustan Times, Nov 2
Mexico, which topped the list every year from 2021 to 2025, was second with 2,547 removals, followed by the United States (679), Colombia (626) and Haiti (606), according to the CBSA's removals-by-citizenship table. The agency's 2026 figures currently run from January to September; October to December are listed as not yet available.
Source: CBSA, removals by citizenship, 2026
A six-year climb
The CBSA's own year-by-year table traces the climb: 603 Indians removed in 2021, 786 in 2022, 1,132 in 2023, 2,004 in 2024 and 3,779 in 2025 — and now 4,526 in just nine months of 2026. The last time Indians were the largest cohort was 2020, when 1,424 were removed. Quebec accounted for the most removals by region in 2026 (7,546), followed by the Greater Toronto Area (5,141).
Source: CBSA, removals by citizenship and by region
Across all nationalities, most 2026 removals were recorded as non-compliance by refugee claimants (13,185 of 16,426), with non-claimant non-compliance at 2,019, criminality at 999 and misrepresentation at 98. The CBSA does not publish a reason-by-citizenship breakdown, so the data do not show how those reasons split among the 4,526 Indian cases specifically. By order type, 9,491 removals were under deportation orders, 3,529 under departure orders and 3,406 under exclusion orders; only 833 of the 16,426 removals were escorted, with the rest leaving unescorted after being ordered to go.
Source: CBSA, removals by inadmissibility type, order type and escort status, 2026
What happens next: the CBSA's removal-in-progress inventory holds 52,457 people in total, and Indians are its largest group at 11,393 — ahead of Mexicans at 6,182 — which means Indian nationals are likely to remain the largest removal cohort when the October–December figures are published. For Canada's large Indian and Punjabi communities, the numbers land in the middle of an already tighter immigration system, including the one-year asylum hearing rule that took effect this month.