A 25-year-old Libyan man died of a drug overdose while being held in a Montreal prison in 2004, after he told immigration officials he didn’t want to return to Libya because he had once gotten in a fight with dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s son.
A Global News investigation obtained new information through Access to Information and the Quebec coroner’s office that identified the man as Amjad Enaeli – one of at least 15 people who have died while in immigration custody since 2000, and a death whose details CBSA did not want to publicize.
READ MORE: Canada’s Unwanted – Non-citizens paid to leave, jailed without charge, die in secret
Global News approached CBSA for comment on this story and they did not reply by deadline. In responses sent the day after the piece was published, the agency said, “To protect the privacy rights of the individual, information surrounding the death was not made public.”
CBSA detains people for four reasons: if they think they pose a danger to the public, if they are thought to be unlikely to appear for an examination or hearing, if there are questions about their identity, or they are part of a minister-designated “irregular arrival.” However, the people so held, sometimes for years, have not been charged with a crime.
Enaeli was thought to be a flight risk, unlikely to report for deportation.
Global News reported on the deaths of individuals in immigration custody in 2014. In that story, we confirmed that 10 people had died while in immigration detention since 2000. We were able to obtain some basic details on nine of them – things like the date deceased, the person’s nationality, and in some cases, their name and some details of how they died. But at that time, although CBSA said there was a 10th person, they provided no information at all on the individual, other than that he or she died while in immigration custody sometime between 2000 and 2014.
And that was part of their plan – in an email obtained through another Access to Information request there is a note about three deaths, including Enaeli’s, which says the information should not to be shared with the media.
Anywhere but Libya
But how did Enaeli end up in a Quebec prison in the first place? Documents provide some clues.
As an immigration detainee, he attended regular hearings about his detention case. Written decisions from those hearings shed a little light on his history.
Read Enaeli’s IRB detention review from August 16, 2004
Read Enaeli’s IRB detention review from August 23, 2004
Enaeli came to Canada from Libya on a student visa in 1999 and attended flight school. During his time in Canada, he was charged with several crimes: assault, impaired driving and uttering death threats. He was convicted on August 11, 2004 of three counts of uttering threats and one count of breaching conditions.
He was sentenced to one additional day in prison, given that he had already served some time before his trial. He was handed over to immigration authorities the next day, August 12.
Enaeli told immigration officers that he did not want to return to Libya – in part, he said, because of an incident at a soccer game at which he allegedly hit then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son. He said he was worried he’d be killed if he was sent home. However, he declined to make a refugee claim.
But although Enaeli didn’t want to go back to Libya, he was willing to be deported to another country, like Tunisia, where his wealthy father lived. However, he was slated to be removed to Libya.
Because he had said that he didn’t want to go back to that country, the immigration board member decided that Enaeli was a flight risk and should be held until his removal. If for some reason the destination changed though, Enaeli could go free until his deportation, as long as he reported to an immigration office once a week, reported any change of address, and agreed to appear if summoned.
But that destination never changed, and so Enaeli stayed in detention. At a subsequent hearing, the IRB official noted the immigration minister was looking into whether he could be sent to Tunisia instead, and that it would take about six weeks to get the necessary travel documents.
In the meantime, he remained in custody.
At some point, he was transferred to the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre for unspecified security reasons.
He died there, 23 days after his last hearing, and just over a month after he was first taken into immigration custody.
Drugs in prison
Enaeli was held in the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre in Montreal, according to a Quebec coroner’s report. He was arrested in June 2004. He was found dead in his cell on September 15, 2004, of an apparent drug overdose.
His cellmate reported that the night before his death, Enaeli was acting strangely – falling off a bench and spilling a cup of tea. He went to bed early. When the cellmate woke the next morning, he found Enaeli in the same position as he had been in the night before. Fellow prisoners reported after breakfast that he had stopped breathing.
The coroner found several drugs in his system: anti-depressants, an anti-psychotic, anti-anxiety and allergy medication, morphine, an anti-seizure and panic disorder medication, and metabolized heroin. The pathologist concluded that he died from the heroin, but that these other medications may have contributed.
Enaeli was known to have alcohol and drug problems, according to the report, and was continually trying to get medication while in prison. However, he was not thought to be suicidal. In his report, the coroner recommended that an anti-drug policy be put in place in all Quebec prisons.
CBSA says that it was never made aware of a coroner’s report on Enaeli’s death, but now it seeks out such information. “Since 2014, the CBSA has been actively following up on deaths in detention and has developed a process that ensures the CBSA follows-up with the Coroner’s office as well as any other investigations.”
“The CBSA is committed to ensuring the health and safety of those in our care. As is the case with any death in custody, the CBSA takes this matter seriously and an investigation is launched by the various responsible partners with full cooperation of the Agency. The CBSA also completes a review of the circumstances surrounding the deaths to identify any factors that could be addressed to prevent any future loss of life.”
Editor’s note: Story updated June 7, 2016 to include CBSA comments received after publication.
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